<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>In The Woods Somewhere by blackjax123</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26491213">In The Woods Somewhere</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackjax123/pseuds/blackjax123'>blackjax123</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternative Universe - Sally Dies, BAMF Percy Jackson, But I can stab a man!, But still ignorant asf cause feral, F/M, Feral Percy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pairings To Be Confirmed, Smart Percy, You Have Been Warned, cute percy, what even is maths?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-04-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:40:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>38,193</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26491213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackjax123/pseuds/blackjax123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sally dies on the run, leaving Percy to be raised by a trio of nature spirits.<br/>Watch what happens when Percy is raised to have a very different idea of what constitutes a good childhood, and how this will change the events to come. </p><p>Its Feral Percy y'all! Smarter than the average bear!<br/>(but not by a whole lot)<br/>Read how this changes the events of the Titan war, and possibly the Giant War if I get that far!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>175</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>520</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue: The Last Act of Sally Jackson</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/684925">A Different Legend</a> by Jecka76.
        </li>

    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Prologue: The Last Act of Sally Jackson</b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Sally’s POV)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She ran.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her breath was heavy, raspy in her ears. Her ribs ached with each breath, the numerous cuts and bruises aching along with them. Her heart was pounding, even as she attempted to pull from desperate reserves she knew she didn’t have, it beat rapidly, the sound of it loud in her head.</p>
<p>Her legs were growing weak from exertion. It’s not that she was unfit, but she sure as anything hadn’t trained for this marathon for her life I was running. Every scratch, every bruise, every scrape and bleeding wound drained her strength that little bit faster, strength she needed, strength she didn’t have.</p>
<p>Her shoulder ached from the people she had bull-rushed past, and her ankle was screaming now with every step, the sprain the result of a clumsy vault over a fence with an uneven landing.</p>
<p>Still Sally Jackson ran.</p>
<p>The new mother knew the worth of her own life. She was a college drop-out, from trying to nurse her one remaining grandparent on their death bed. Sally was an orphan with no background, an aspiring writer with not even a dead-end job to her name. The one good thing in her life was the brief fling she had with a man who had claimed to have loved her, with his gorgeous sea-green eyes and wild black hair. A fling that had resulted in the only good thing she had in her life, her only worth in this world, the one thing she had worth defending.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her Percy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her sweet, innocent, baby boy, with his father’s eyes and hair, and her nose and a smile, a tiny crooked smile that lit up her life, gave her some hope in this gods forsaken world.</p>
<p>And she had felt forsaken, as they had forsaken her. One fling, one night of love and laughter and light, and it wasn’t even with a human!<br/>
No, it was with a god, and he wouldn’t stay, couldn’t stay, even if he wanted to, because of some Ancient Laws that stopped him, leaving her alone once more.</p>
<p>Yet she couldn’t hate him for it, gods, she couldn’t even dislike him for it, as it gave her Percy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So she ran, from bloodthirsty monsters that hated her son for simply existing, hated the gods for all they stood for, and wished to balance things by his torture and death, his blood in their throats and heart in their claws.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sally would never give him to them, not while she still drew breath.</p>
<p>So she ran still, clutching him to her chest as concrete paths gave way to gravel and mud, buildings replaced with branches that scratched at her and caught on her clothes as she forced her way forwards.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the end it was one stone that put an end to the chase.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>One stone that was hidden behind taller grass, making her good foot trip and her bad one land unevenly in a pot-hole, making her scream as already injured tissue tore.<br/>
And just like that the chase was over.<br/>
She could hear her pursuers, the barking of hellhounds baying for blood.</p>
<p>They would be there in moments, and try as she might, her leg would not carry her, one screaming attempt causing the mother to pitch forwards onto the forest floor, arms still clutched around her precious bundle, what little breath she had left in her leaving in a rush as she hit the ground shoulder first with nothing to slow her fall.</p>
<p>Yet even as she landed, with black spots coating flashing in front of her eyes from her fall, Sally saw a faint glimmer of hope. A large pond, the kind that she knew intuitively would be infinitely deeper than it looked, just within arms reach. No chance for her, but for her precious boy, her Percy, a chance at life maybe?<br/>
And that was worth anything.</p>
<p>She could hear her pursuers now, and could finally see them just step through the bushes even as she forced herself to her knees with what little strength she had left. A pair of huge slobbering dogs, big as a van with coal black fur and glowing red embers for eyes. She could smell their breath, rank with rotting flesh from their open mouths as their drool dripped and left sizzling holes in the undergrowth.</p>
<p>She felt something break in her, a storm of defiance roaring in her mind. They wanted to make a meal of them huh?</p>
<p>She would make sure they went hungry.</p>
<p>“Anyone, anyone at all! Please take care of my baby boy! Please take care of my Percy!” Sally called out.</p>
<p>Then with one last effort, she threw her baby boy, the light of her life, into the pond.</p>
<p>She watched him land with a splash in the pond and vanish in its depths, before turning to find a hellhound right in front of her, yet she couldn’t help but smile.</p>
<p>She was going to die, but Sally Jackson knew she had won.</p>
<p>She smiled in the face of her certain death and said, “You will not have him,” before she felt the searing heat of teeth closing on her, and the world went black.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Aspasia POV)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Life had been slow recently for Aspasia, which truth be told was a good thing. The dryad had been napping on and off the last few weeks as was her habit in fall, and had woken a few days ago. She had been enjoying the afternoon, watching the fading sunlight dance in the falling leaves, when she heard whispers of a hunt in the wind, carried by the voices of the local aurae and other dryads and nymphs in the woods. Now hunts wasn’t uncommon in these parts per se, even if it was a bit out of season, but the nature of this hunt had caught the attention of the forest residents:</p>
<p>A mother carrying her baby, running with dogged determination from a pair of hellhounds.</p>
<p>The distant voice of Zelia, one of the more reliable aurae, told her that the child was a demigod for certain, and as they neared the pond her tree stood beside she couldn’t argue with her.</p>
<p>The child swaddled and cradled in the tired mother’s arms fairly reeked of power and the sharp tang of the sea. Aspasia watched silently from the branches of her oak as the mother made that catastrophic step that sent her tumbling to the ground, and she couldn’t help but feel for her.</p>
<p>The mother’s love for her child was obvious in her struggle, and it was disheartening to see such effort put to waste by tripping on a rock of all things. The dryad almost wanted to intervene, but a lone dryad against a pair of truly massive hellhounds? It was a fight even a spirit of her experience and combative nature was likely to lose. Better to do as her kind always did. Stay out of godly affairs and live and let live, or, in this case, die.</p>
<p>Aspasia had turned her eyes form the scene, resigned to the woman’s fate when she heard it.</p>
<p>The mother’s voice, hoarse and ragged, yet sweet and fierce, asking anyone listening to take care of her son. Then a splash.</p>
<p>Aspasia’s turned back and sure enough, she could see the swaddled child slipping into the depths, even as the mother stared down the hellhound with a smirk before her life ended with a snap.</p>
<p>The dryad couldn’t help but let out a laugh as the hellhounds snarled at the pond, their prey buried in it’s depths and far from their reach. The mother had earned the last laugh for sure. A demigod stinking of the sea was in no danger of drowning, and the naiads of the pond would never let an infant in their waters die to such beasts. Sure enough, even the hellhounds figured that out fast enough, leaving the area with one last snarl before bounding away.</p>
<p>Once the monsters were safely out of the woods, Aspasia descended her branches before dangling her legs in the pond’s waters. A few minutes later, a naiad rose from it’s depths, and the dryad smiled at the sight of her old friend holding the still bundled infant in their arms.</p>
<p>“Good to see you awake, Aspasia,” the naiad said with a shy smile, before joining her friend on the bank.</p>
<p>“Good to be awake, Elena,” the dryad said with a chuckle, giving the pond spirit a hug.</p>
<p>Elena was a naiad she had known for most of her long life, an inevitability of her tree resting on the ponds banks. The motherly water spirit was always welcome company for the dryad, her shyer personality somehow meshing perfectly with her more confident one. The pair even contrasted in looks, Elena being short and curvy, busty and round, compared to Aspasia’s tall, lean muscle.<br/>
Shortly after their greeting, the pair were joined by Zelia, the aurae who had been keeping the dryad up to date on the hunt. The wind spirit drifted through the canopy, her graceful hourglass once again comically contrasting with the pair.</p>
<p>“So the mutts are gone. The question is, what do we do about this thing?” The normally cheerful wind spirit said seriously, indicating the bundle in Elena’s arms.</p>
<p>“Don’t call him a thing! He has a name,” the naiad said firmly, holding (somehow sleeping?) child closer to her chest.</p>
<p>Aspasia nodded with a small smile, holding out her arms to hold the infant. Elena reluctantly handed over the bundle, and the dryad couldn’t help but smile as she saw the sleeping infant’s face.</p>
<p>“Percy. His mother called him Percy,” Aspasia said gently, gently rocking the child.</p>
<p>“OK then, Percy. What are we going to do with Percy?” Zelia asked, still frowning a the bundle of trouble that had landed in their lives.</p>
<p>To Aspasia, smiling gently as the boy let out a little coo in his sleep, there was only one answer.</p>
<p>“We keep him,” she said firmly, looking up from him at her old friends.</p>
<p>Seeing Elena’s smile and nod, Aspasia continued.</p>
<p>“We keep him and raise him, the three of us. At least enough to help him survive. It’s the least we can do to honor a mother who would go to such lengths.”</p>
<p>Zelia could see the determination in her eyes as she spoke. She knew the trouble the child would bring. He was a human, a boy, worst still, a demigod!<br/>
There was no way this was going to be easy, and in all likelihood would end in tears.</p>
<p>But she knew without asking that Aspasia would not be swayed, and Elena looked equally ready to fight for this.<br/>
And what kind of friend would she be to let her two closest friends raise a demigod on their own?<br/>
Zelia sighed, before nodding, causing her friends to laugh and hug her even as they thanked her.</p>
<p>Later, as the aurae held the baby, <em>Percy</em>, in her arms for the first time, she let out a little chuckle.</p>
<p>She could already tell that this was going to be one of the last peaceful days they had for sometime, but wasn’t it a good thing to have some change in their lives, if only to add a little spice?<br/>
Besides, she reflected, if nothing else, their new son was cute.<br/>
And more cute things was always a good thing.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 1: Raising a Demigod - By Three Well-Meaning But Confused Nature Spirits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Turning an adorable baby into an adorable ball of knives and smiles.<br/>Also, hobbies are good for keeping children out of one kind of trouble and getting them into other kinds.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 1: Raising a Demigod – by Three Well-Meaning But Confused Nature Spirits</b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Percy’s early years consisted of the usual things for an infant not long from the womb, albeit in an unusual fashion. The three nature spirits worked hard to raise the tiny demigod. Aspasia sang to him, and rocked him by swinging through the canopy. Elena swam in her waters with him, the green-eyed child often falling asleep in her depths. Zelia travelled far and wide, learning what she could about what he would need in the years to come, returning with lessons to teach the other two and to spend time with the tiny bundle who was so rapidly claiming a hold of her heart.</p>
<p>By the age of four, Percy had started to grow and mature quickly. He adored his mothers, and would do anything to make them proud. So, when Aspasia started to teach him how to track and move stealthily, he put his all into learning the movements. When Elena decided to teach him the names and uses for the many plants and wildlife both in her waters and in the surrounding woods, he desired nothing more than to know them inside and out. And when Zelia started to teach him how to read and write? He even tried to learn how to do those as well.</p>
<p>Zelia still remembers finding him crying behind some rocks. When asked why, he eventually told her that it was because he couldn’t get the reading and writing to work properly, describing the way the letters swam around the page, making his head hurt and feel dizzy. Hearing this, the aurae comforted the boy, all while bitterly chastising herself. He was a demigod! Of course he had dyslexia! It was one of the first things she had learnt in her research, how could she have been so stupid as to forget it?!</p>
<p>Needless to say, his mothers took the time to cheer him up, feeding him his favourite honey roasted grouse with the special blue pond grass that grew in Elena’s pond.</p>
<p>This small incident served as a stern reminder that as a demigod, Percy would have certain needs that would have to be met, not least of which would be learning to live in a world that frankly would want him dead.</p>
<p>“Mama, why are we in the meadow?” The cheerful child asked his dryad mother.</p>
<p>Percy had taken to calling the three separately, Aspasia as Mama, Elena as Mom, and Zelia as Maman, her having spent some time in French Canada.</p>
<p>The tall dryad smiled down at her boy. He had been growing rapidly, eating plentifully and being very active in keeping up with his mothers, so much so that Elena had recently had to make him new clothes as the others had torn from use. The skilful naiad had woven tough long grasses into a pair of shorts for the child, cutting off above his knees and died in a motley green and brown for camouflage that he wore with a tied robe belt. His wild raven hair had recently been cut back, yet still managed to bounce above his startling green eyes. Eyes that were currently watching her curiously, before she gave a small chuckle and handed him a carefully carved wooden knife, holding one of her own in the other hand.</p>
<p>“Well Percy, seeing as your other mothers have begun teaching you how to defend yourself, I thought you might like it if I taught you something as well.”</p>
<p>The boy’s eyes grew wide at this statement, before whooping for joy.</p>
<p>“You’re finally gonna teach me knife-work? Really Mama?! Other weapons too?!” He asked with a bright smile on his face, bouncing on his toes in excitement.</p>
<p>Percy had watched his mothers practice their chosen disciplines of self defence many times, but only recently had they started including him in their practice, and he wanted nothing more than to learn from them. Zelia had begun teaching him stretches and some acrobatics, as well as some basic hand to hand techniques, while Elena had begun teaching their son to use his hydrokinesis just this last quarter moon.</p>
<p>Teaching him to use his powers had been a subject of much argument for the three as they knew that learning to use them would make his demigod scent grow stronger and put him in danger.</p>
<p>They had known he was a son of Poseidon of course.</p>
<p>How else would he have survived that first encounter if not for being the son of a water deity? Besides that, he emitted far too much power to be born of a minor god rather than an Olympian, let alone the big three.</p>
<p>They had eventually settled that this was likely to happen anyway what with being continually exposed to the magical world, and it was better for him to know than not.</p>
<p>In keeping with this logic, Aspasia had informed the other two that she would begin weapons training soon, which of course brought her back to her bouncing son in front of her.</p>
<p>“You were right first time, darling. We shall have you learn to use knives first, before teaching you weapons as well. We will find what you work best with, and have you master that. But first I shall teach you something else. Repeat after me.”</p>
<p><br/>The dryad then sang a series of notes. While seemingly random, they hung in the air, hauntingly beautiful, and the child knew that they held power only not shown through his Mama’s restraint.</p>
<p>The dryad’s son sung the notes to the best of his ability, his keen ears catching the differences and after minimal correction his song soon blended seamlessly with that of his mother’s, if in an adorably high voice.</p>
<p>“That, darling, is the beginning of one of many spellsongs I will teach you. I want you to memorize these, and while we practice, you are to sing them ok? In due course, I will teach you how to put your will in them. But for now learning them is enough. Now, on to how to use your blade.”</p>
<p><br/>The child nodded, a look of fierce determination on his small face. He would learn the weapons, and the songs, and make his Mama proud!</p>
<p>The rest of the lesson passed quickly, focusing on grip and stance before teaching Percy basic attacks and defense with a single knife. As with Zelia’s training, Aspasia put great emphasis on proper stance.</p>
<p>“Only by holding yourself right will any attack or defence fulfil it’s purpose. A weak person with a strong stance can often best a strong person with a weak one!”</p>
<p>This lesson was one repeated often in his training with the pair, and it came as no surprise to him that the pair had collaborated on how they would teach him.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Moons passed and seasons changed and Percy grew with time. The small boy’s muscles grew at a healthy rate, carefully watched so as not to impeded his growth, while his constant training and playing with his mothers and in the forest meant he had almost boundless stamina; endurance far beyond what one may find in others his age. With his mother’s aid, Percy found he had an affinity for paired hunting knives. He could use a spear and staff, and was talented with a sword, but he found a deep satisfaction in using a pair of knives. This was likely due to it being a speciality of his Mama, who had watched his progress with pride. Percy now knew an array of spellsongs with many potential effects that he was learning to fuse his intent with, and the meadow would often bare witness to the pair sparring, the bright flash of blades and acrobatics accompanied by their haunting songs.</p>
<p>His training with his inherited powers followed a similar trend of growth. While Percy’s first few lessons with his Mom had been about learning to feel for his powers to begin with, under the naiad’s patient teaching her son had soon learnt to begin moving the water with his will, taking advantage of the water’s regenerative properties on him to aid in his training. With time his finesse with them had grown to greater heights, as he learnt to shape the water and move greater masses of it, using his powers to hold large portions of the pond above him to train his endurance for that special kind of exhaustion that came with their use. He had even begun to see if he could manipulate water vapour from cooking food, the steam often slipping through his mental grasp as he learnt this new aspect of his powers with his characteristic dogged determination.</p>
<p>Likewise, his training with his Maman had grown with time. With her love of travel, the aurae had encountered many martial arts over time, and had instilled in her son bits and pieces of all of her favorites, often accompanied by stories of where and how she learnt the technique. Percy was gifted with close combat, and Zelia reveled in her sons growing strength and talent as she taught him all she knew.</p>
<p>As Percy grew into his 7<sup>th</sup> year, his mothers met him by the pond one day to inform him of a trip he should take.</p>
<p>“Hi Moms! Why’d you call me here?” The growing boy happily asked. If compared to another of his age, Percy would look nothing like them. While still under 5 foot, the demigod moved with an elegant grace befitting one raised and trained by nature spirits. In his customary woven shorts and fur vest, the boy’s muscles were long and lean, powerful yet still agile, and lined with a multitude of small scars speaking of his time in the wilds. He had been taken on many a small monster hunt, carefully curated by his mothers, and it showed in his deadly grace and awareness of his surroundings. But for all of that, the green-eyed boy’s face still bore childish innocence as he looked up at the ones who had lovingly raised him, and his three mothers couldn’t help but smile at his obvious adoration of them.</p>
<p>“Well mon fils, we were thinking that it might be a good experience for you if where to visit some of our cousins on the mountain,” Zelia began.</p>
<p>“You have cousins on the mountain Maman?” Percy asked, his head tilted in curiosity.</p>
<p>Aspasia had to fight down the urge to coo at her adorable son before answering him.</p>
<p>“Cousins is perhaps oversimplifying it son, but there are other nature spirits there that you have not met before. We thought you might enjoy spending some time with a pair of oreids that we have known for many years. They are a married couple by the names of Petros and Agathi. We think you will enjoy your time there.”</p>
<p>The three mother’s watched as their son bounced happily at the thought of spending time with what he called his “bigger family!” much to their amusement.</p>
<p>The next day saw the boy setting off to what to the North East, navigating by the sun and stars and travelling through the wilderness as he had been informed by his mothers over the years that civilisation was “More trouble than it’s worth” and he was inclined to agree with them from what few encounters with it he had had.</p>
<p>The trip was largely uneventful, at least by his standards. Other demigods might disagree with that due to the piles of gold dust he left in his wake, but as far as Percy knew, this was perfectly normal, and not worth commenting on. Other demigods might disagree with this again, questioning what was normal about a 7 year old tearing through a troupe of dracanae using a pair of repurposed Empoussai legs beaten and ground into daggers, but again, Percy would have simply been confused by such a question.</p>
<p>Soon enough Percy found himself at the foot of the mountain range he had been directed to. After asking the local nature spirits who were only too happy to help him (“Oh, you’re Zelia’s boy! Smell a bit much of the sea to be honest, but I can see it now. Aren’t you just a cutey!”), Percy was directed to a cave about two thirds of the way up.</p>
<p>Percy approached the cave nervously. All the nature spirits he’d known had been kind to him, but he had never met an oread before. What if they didn’t like him? Where the expecting him? Maybe he should just go home...</p>
<p>Screwing up his courage the green-eyed boy called into the cave,</p>
<p>“Hello? Is anyone in there? My name is Percy, and my Moms said I should come visit you.”</p>
<p>His voice echoed for a bit through the cave entrance, after a tense minute, a kindly looking old woman emerged from inside. The woman was small, barely taller than him, with grey and white mottled skin forming wrinkled features into a gentle smile.</p>
<p>“Oh? Mothers? Now thats an odd thing to say. Tell me lad, what are the names of your mothers?”</p>
<p>The old spirit, oread Percy realised, asked him with a glint of humour in her eyes.</p>
<p>“Their names are Aspasia, Elena and Zelia ma’am,” Percy answered politely. He had been taught to respect women, the elderly and strangers, and this spirit was all three!<br/><br/>The oread chuckled warmly. “Don’t ma’am me lad, makes me feel my age. I had heard that those three had taken in an infant, though seeing is believing and sure enough, here you are! Now, Percy was it? What brings you to these parts?”</p>
<p>Percy shifted his feet, his nervousness and ADHD warring with being polite before he spoke.</p>
<p>“My Moms said that there were oreads on this mountain called Agathi and Petros. They said that it would be good for me to spend some time with them here, about a season I was told.”</p>
<p>The old oread smiled widely before taking his hand and shaking it.</p>
<p>“Well then, nice to meet you Percy! My name is Agathi, and my husband Petros is just inside. And I think we would love to have you for a season!” Agathi said happily, before moving inside and beaconing him to follow.</p>
<p>The inside of the cave was warm and comfortable, set up like one large combination lounge, kitchen and bedroom with fur pelts lining the walls and floor, all surrounding a heath built into the cave wall. None of this was particularly strange or different to the boy, though he had definitely expected it to be colder. No, what captured his attention and held it were an array of small statues, about a foot tall at the largest, lining a shelf above the hearth, with larger ones set in eaves in the walls of the rooms. The statues were made of a plain grey stone for the most part, yet held spectacular detail; cloth soft and moving, hair suspended in the breeze, skin soft and warm to touch, all hewn from the most ordinary of stone with loving care. Even as Agathi’s chatter washed over him, Percy felt drawn to the man seated beside a bench.</p>
<p>The man, Petros clearly, was as small as his wife, yet nearly as wide as he was tall, and looked intensely focused as he passed a chisel blade across the surface of the creation forming in his hands: A running stag, muscles bunched as it fled from its hunters. It was only half-formed, yet what had been carved was so realistic Percy could almost smell the distinctive musk of deer and terror, hear the fallen leaves crunching under its pounding hooves. The demigod watched spellbound as the oread formed the curve of it’s antlers, and was startled when the man put down the statue and blade and turned to him.</p>
<p>Percy could only blush as the man looked at him curiously, before turning to his wife with a pointed look.</p>
<p>“Oh don’t be like that Petros! You remember how I told you how that squabbling trio over in the Big Indian Wilderness adopted a boy?,” Agathi asked, getting a brief nod from her husband.</p>
<p>“Well this is him! Petros, meet Percy! He’ll be staying with us for a season. And from the looks of how he was watching you earlier, I’d say he’d like you to to teach him how to sculpt,” she commented with a sly grin.</p>
<p>Petros, for his part, simply turned from his wife to look at the now blushing small boy, and raised an eyebrow in question. Percy, seemingly caught out, attempted to stutter out a reply, before simply nodding vigorously. Petros nodded slowly in response, before reaching across his work space and grabbing a smaller blade, obviously accommodating Percy’s smaller hands, and a lump of stone before placing them in front of the boy. Petros gave him a commanding look, before taking a stone block for himself and, with pointed slowness, started making the first cut into the stone.<br/>Percy watched him do this with no little excitement, before the oread stopped and looked at him, then at the stone and blade in his hands. Percy blushed a little harder before attempting to copy the movement Petros had shown, no, taught him.</p>
<p>The rest of the day past swiftly, Percy only noticing the passage of time when Agathi brought a meal of roasted bird of some description before the pair and his stomach snarled at it’s neglect.</p>
<p>His first attempted sculpture was that of a boar, and was obviously amateur compared to the lifelike figure Petros had carved beside him, yet the old oread had given him a small, proud smile at the completion of his statue, and put it proudly on the hearth shelf alongside his own works of art. And just like that, the routine for his stay with the mountain spirits was set.</p>
<p>Percy would wake in the morning and do his training, the importance of it long drilled into him by his mothers, now including carrying a sac of rocks up and down the mountain’s slope and lifting rocks for weights alongside his already vigorous schedule. After which he would take a short bath in a nearby mountain pool, before joining Petros in sculpting for the rest of the day. Some days they would sculpt outside in the sun, and when the moon became fuller and the night was clear, they would carve on the terraces around the cave by moonlight. Percy’s skill in this grew swiftly under the patient teachings of his mentor, who could speak entire lessons with a bare few looks and hand gestures.</p>
<p>One night, as they were seated around the hearth, Agathi was speaking stories about the Gods and Goddesses. Not just about their deeds and battles, but who they were and what they stood for.</p>
<p>“You see that statue right in the middle there, Percy? That is Lady Hestia. She was once an Olympian, one of the council, but when Lord Dionysus ascended, she stepped down to spare the world from a war between the gods. She is the Goddess of the Hearth, Fire and Family both. And she is just as powerful as her siblings, make no mistake! But she deserves respect as much for her restraint as anything else.”</p>
<p>Agathi spoke with passion, and for once had nothing bad to say about a god. She had made a point of teaching him about all sides of them, the good and the bad, when they acted kindly and cruelly. And Lady Hestia, it seems, was held in higher respect than the others.</p>
<p>Percy found himself watching the statue as stories of her deeds were told, noticing how it glowed in the firelight and how kind her smile was.</p>
<p>Another figure held in great esteem was that of Lady Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, the wild, childbirth and Mistress of the Moon. Her statue was second only to that of Lady Hestia’s on the mantle, and showed her in fierce pursuit, sprinting low to the ground with bow held ready.</p>
<p>“She is a fierce goddess is Lady Artemis. She leads the Hunt, a group of women, girls really, who have been made immortal by her will in exchange for forsaking all men. We owe more than we may ever know to their diligent efforts to cull monsters before they come for the rest of us. And, of course, she is Mistress of the Wilds! Those of us that live in them and rely on them owe her our fealty, our greatest respect.”</p>
<p>Percy spent the next while staring at the statues even as Agathi continued to spin her tales, thinking about how much his family meant to him, how much the wild was his home, and came to the conclusion that it was only right to thank the two goddesses. After all, as his mother’s had taught him, it was only polite. Having three mothers had given the boy a very firm idea of respect and how it was earned, as well as how being polite was important.</p>
<p>“Hey Auntie Agathi,” as the boy had taken to calling her, “How do I say thanks to gods or goddesses?”</p>
<p>His adoptive aunty chuckled before answering. “Why by burning offerings to them! Don’t ask me why, I’m not one of the divine, but apparently offerings burnt for them smell amazing, so they enjoy it,” the oread said before laughing heartily.</p>
<p>Percy nodded dubiously at this, not really understanding how burning things would smell good but, as his aunty had said, he wasn’t one of the divine, so maybe it made more sense to them?</p>
<p>And so, the next day, Percy hunted a pair of hares, catching them with a combination of throwing knives and his hydrokinesis. The young boy skinned and prepared them, having learnt cooking from his mothers as a necessary skill, before getting a fire going in the firepit outside the cave. Maybe it did smell good to the gods, but he wasn’t about to risk it smelling awful to them by burning it inside the cave. Having heard that the more care that went into the offering the better, Percy took care to cook them perfectly before setting them aside and stoking the fire to a full blaze.</p>
<p>Feeling that offerings should have something said about them, but not knowing anything about praying, Percy sat awkwardly beside the fire for a few moments before speaking.</p>
<p>“To Lady Hestia. I’m Percy, and I want to thank you for my family. They might not be related to me, but I love my Mom Elena, Mama Aspasia and Maman Zelia more than anything. Even though the lady that gave birth to me died, she gave me to them, so I wanna thank you for her too but I don’t know her name. Here is an offering. Apparently you like them burned? So I’m gonna do that. Hope you like it!”</p>
<p>He said the last words cheerfully before throwing the cooked hare in the fire. To his great relief, instead of the stink of wasted roast meat, a heavenly scent rose from the flames, reminding him of the berries his Maman would bring him after her travels, and the blue pondgrass Mom used in roasting and, to his pleasure, roasting meat, even as the hare crumbled to ash.</p>
<p>Percy thought that might mean she had got the offering. He hoped she had enjoyed it.</p>
<p>The small boy pulled up the next one before speaking once more.</p>
<p>“To Lady Artemis. I’m Percy, and I know you don’t like boys, but I wanted to thank you and the Hunt for the wild and the work you do in killing monsters. I try to help and keep my home in the woods safe, but I don’t really travel and I know you do so you help a lot of places and I think that’s really nice of you. So..... thanks!” He finished, before throwing the hare in the fire.</p>
<p>Once more an array of delicious smells rose to meet him, making him happy that they had got the offering. He was sad that the goddess didn’t like boys, but after hearing some of Agathi’s stories he couldn’t blame her. He wasn’t fond of them himself, having chased off more than a few satyr’s unwanted advances on the nymphs and dryads in his forest. He hoped she liked the offering regardless.</p>
<p>After a brief moment, and seeing the fire still going and there was still a lot of light, Percy decided that he would get something for Lady Hera too. It wasn’t her fault that her husband cheated on her making her angry at demigods, and she was a goddess of Family too, and he was really really grateful to his family. What better way to show it?</p>
<p>Nodding firmly, the boy quickly found another hare, prepared it like he had the others, and prayed.<br/><br/>“To Lady Hera. I’m Percy, and I just just wanted to thank you for my family. They mean everything to me, so I can’t thank you enough. Mom Elena is really kind and helps me with water stuff, and Mama Aspasia teaches me weapons and how to be good in the woods, and Maman Zelia tells me lots of stories from her travels, and well, I just really love them. And Thanks for the mom that gave birth to me to or I wouldn’t be here. So thanks!” He finishes as before offering it up, being met with the now familiar scent of the offerings.</p>
<p>Percy sang a spellsong gently to himself as he sat down beside the fireplace and started carving. He was learning to carve different animals now, and had heard that the gods had favourite animals. Maybe he could offer some carvings? He smiled as he continued to work, enjoying the simple, repetitive task as the hours passed him by.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>(On Olympus)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hestia was watching her brothers argue from her spot beside the hearth when the offering arrived.</p>
<p>The scent of the offering filled her nose, together with a familiar little rush of power, leaving her with a delighted smile on her face. Now, it wasn’t that offerings were unfamiliar in and of themselves, she had been receiving them for millennia after all. However, it was rare that she received one quite so pure in it’s intent. Roast hare, prepared skilfully, and offered with a simple, childish, prayer of thanks. She fought a chuckle when the words of it reached her. The way they introduced themselves was just too precious, and the confusion in their voice as they spoke of burning the meal they had prepared was delightful. But the purity of the boy’s intent, an offering of thanks, was undeniably powerful. He had caught and prepared the meat with his own hands, gifted it in it’s entirety to her, and asked for nothing in return. She had not had such an offering in so very long, and found herself wiping away a tear even as she gave a little giggle. She only hoped that this was not a one-off offering, that she might find this boy and speak to him at some point.</p>
<p>The second offering arrived not long afterwards. Artemis had been leaning against her throne, bored and tired of the bickering of her father and uncle, when her sharp eyes caught a brief movement. Why was Aunt Hestia wiping away a tear? What had made her cry? These questions rose in her mind even as she noticed the beaming smile on her Aunty’s face, and had just allowed herself to relax thinking to speak to her later, when the scent of an unexpectedly powerful offering met her nose. The silver-eyed goddess found herself lost in the scent, a whole roast hare, deliciously prepared along with a strong scent of the wild, the accompanying prayer following shortly after. She held back a laugh at the boy’s hesitation, and his obvious inexperience in praying, before allowing herself to soak in the pure gratitude in his voice. He had even remember to thank her for the hunt! It was a bitter pill she was continuously forced to swallow how often the work of the hunt went unappreciated, and this child, this <em>boy</em>, remembered to thank her for it! She carefully hid a grin before too many of the others noticed.</p>
<p>She owed the boy no favours of course, not that he had asked for any she noted. But somehow she found herself curious to meet this child. If he was like this as a boy, maybe he can be shaped into a worthy man in time? It was unlikely of course, but she could allow herself to hope perhaps, just this once.</p>
<p>The long meeting was almost over when the third offering arrived. Hera had noticed her sister’s movement and following grin, as well as Artemis’ smile, no matter how quick she was to hide it. One did not remain Queen of Olympus by not noticing these things. She had pondered what they had meant, and had just concluded that they were little threat to her, when the offering arrived. The scent of it reached her and nearly made the goddess gasp with the strength of the intent. Roast hare, caught and prepared just to offer it whole to her. It was as pleasant as it was unexpected, which was to say very, and she too found herself fighting a smile as the words of the boy’s prayer arrived. The Queen of the Gods had been expecting to have to ignore some plea for power (it was only a hare after all), when it simply... didn’t come. No, the boy just wanted to say thanks for his family, for his three mothers and the mother who gave birth to him.</p>
<p>It was so simple. So pure. So......sweet. Nice.</p>
<p>She found herself truely exercising the poker-face she had gained over the course of her rule as a smile tried to claw it’s way onto her features. Maybe, whoever this child was, might deserve a gift of some sort after all.</p>
<p>When the meeting ended, the Queen of the Gods hung back after requesting Artemis to join her. This garnered some looks from the rest of the council, before they left the room leaving her alone with her step-daughter and her oft forgotten older sister.</p>
<p>“Hera, what did you want of me?” Artemis asked coolly. Hera had always had a tense relationship with her, the woman’s presence a reminder of her husband’s infidelity, and at times like this, she felt some small regret about it, remembering the pure gratitude of the prayer for family.</p>
<p>“Nothing much. Just to talk. Come, sit.” Hera gestured beside the hearth, creating two large, comfortable chairs beside the fire.</p>
<p>“Would you care for a seat sister?” She asked the goddess tending the flames, who looked at her in surprise, before smiling and saying, “No thank-you sister. I am quite alright here.”</p>
<p>The two Olympians seated themselves, enjoying the warmth of Hestia’s fire as she tended it, before Hera finally spoke.</p>
<p>“The oddest thing happened during this last council,” she said casually, knowing the others were listening. “I received an offering of unusual strength. It was a whole roast hare and quite well prepared.” She paused for a moment, making she had their attention.</p>
<p>“The strange thing was, the boy who sent it, only wanted to thank me. For family. A family he clearly adores, and he asked for nothing in return. No favour, no power play. Nothing.<br/>Just simple gratitude.”<br/><br/>The silence was tense, not warning of danger, but in the fashion of a shared secret not yet spoken aloud. Artemis finally broke it with a small chuckle, the sound out of place for those unfamiliar with the goddess, before she asked,</p>
<p>“Did the person praying give you a name, by any chance?”</p>
<p>This caused all three of them to laugh, the tension broken as they recalled his childish prayer, before Hera said, “Yes, he did in fact. He said his name was Percy,” receiving a small laugh from the other two goddesses.</p>
<p>Hestia turned to her niece before asking curiously, “My sister I can understand, we both share the domain of Family after all, but if I may ask, what did Percy thank you for?”</p>
<p>Artemis smiled again before speaking. “He thanked me for the Wild, and for the work of the Hunt,” which received slightly baffled looks from the other two.</p>
<p>“From what I can tell, he lives in the woods, or at least that was the impression I received,” which received noises of understanding in reply. Those who lived in an environment often prayed to those who governed that domain, and with this Percy’s earnestness, it made sense he would thank her for this.</p>
<p>The three of them sat in silence for a while, enjoying the heat of the fire and, unexpectedly, each others company. After a time, Hera spoke once more.</p>
<p>“If he should continue these offerings, I might like to meet this boy,” she said carefully. The other two looked at her in surprise. Hera, Queen of the Gods and infamous for her treatment of demigods, wanting to meet one? At their questioning looks she said “He asked for nothing,”</p>
<p>and they understood. How often must she have been petitioned for power, and ignored for all else?</p>
<p>Soon enough Hestia and Artemis found themselves nodding in agreement. Once some time had passed, if this Percy remained as earnest in his thanks as before, then they too might visit him.</p>
<p>Whatever else, he now had their attention.</p>
<p>Hestia and Hera turned to look at Artemis, who nodded in response. When the time came, if the time came, it would be her job to locate the boy.</p>
<p>Hunting for a boy, not to punish but to reward, would make for a novel change.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, first I wanna say thanks for the response! You guys have been pretty great, and I have taken folks preferences on board :)<br/>It's looking like this one will have no pairings, though I can see my self writing alternate versions very easily :P</p>
<p>And yes, I did make Zelia speak French. I wanted her to have spent time in French Canada, with Boreas et. al.<br/>Dunno why, just seemed neat. No further plans then that.</p>
<p>I know that this didn't show too much of the whole feral side, but believe me when I say it will come through in the next few chapters, and will be far more obvious after that when he actually starts interacting with 'normal' demigods. Should be fun ;)</p>
<p>As always, kudos and comments provide me with the will to live and the motivation to keep writing, and as such are always welcome :D<br/>All the best, and take care out there! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 2: Percy Has Been Busy (In the Background)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>How it looks to some of those on the outside looking in.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 2 – Percy has been busy (in the background)</b>
</p><p> </p><p>A year had past and with it Artemis had a marked improvement in her mood. In her time with the hunt the goddess was often more cheerful than the other gods may expect, especially if the only time they see her outside of council meetings is on a spontaneous visit, which inevitably enraged the goddess. But that does not mean her reputation for stoicism and seriousness was completely unearned, and if no-one else, the Hunt at least had noticed the change in their mistress’s mood. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her, and Zoe Nightshade, Lieutenant of the Hunt, caught her Lady one night shortly before what would be lights out for the rest of the hunt. Artemis was sitting in her tent, smiling gently as she looked at something in her hands Zoe noted, before she knocked on the tent pole to alert her mistress.<br/>“Enter.” This being said the lieutenant made her way inside, and was greeted with a smile from the goddess.</p><p>“How can I help you tonight Zoe?” Artemis asked with a warm smile for her old friend, which she couldn’t help but return.</p><p>“I was curious my lady, what is that thou werst holding? I’m sure I have never seen it before, what ever it may be.”</p><p>Artemis raised her eyebrow, her lipped curling in amusement, before she held the object for Zoe to see, causing the huntress to gasp. The object in question was a small deer, a doe, carved in beautiful detail from plain, dark grey stone. Just looking at it, one could almost feel the breath of the creature, smell it in the air, and see the bunching of it’s muscles as it moved with grace.</p><p>“M’lady, this is exquisite! How didst thou come upon this piece?” Zoe asked, looking at the small statue in awe.</p><p>Artemis smiled warmly before answering, “It was an offering.”</p><p>Zoe looked at the goddess in surprise. “An offering my lady? Quite the offering,” she commented before looking sidelong at her mistress and asking, “Does this perchance have anything to do with thine improvement in mood?”</p><p>The Goddess of the Hunt lifted an eyebrow in question, her face carefully bland.</p><p>“Thine mood has improved this last year, and I do not think I am alone in noticing this. I was simply wondering what hath granted thee this improvement?”</p><p>The goddess let out a soft laugh, before indicating for the huntress to sit and saying,<br/>“I have something to show you, my lieutenant,” and waving her hand.</p><p>After a short burst of silver light, a carved wooden box appeared in her hands, with silver inlaid in a swirling leaf pattern and silver hinges, handle and lock. Laying the chest on her lap, she opened it to reveal an array of small carved figures. After a moment of hesitation and being gestured forward, Zoe picked up one of them, a bear. It was clearly carved from the same stone as the doe, and a completed piece, yet it was distinctly inferior in quality, lacking the depth of detail that breathed life into the deer. The huntress turned to her mistress, a question burning on her lips and was met by the amused smile of the goddess, who raised her hand to silence her.</p><p>“Let me tell you a story Zoe, and by the end if you have any questions, feel free to ask them.”</p><p>Zoe settled with a slight pout which caused the goddess to chuckle, before she started speaking, explaining the council a year ago and the offerings she, Hera and Hestia had received.</p><p>“I did not hold many expectations myself. He was a boy after all, and time tends to warp them,” getting a firm nod from the huntress, “but I was proven wrong. Not even a week had gone by from the last offering when I received another. This time a pair of grouse, roasted and offered whole. But this offering also came paired with the first of these,” she said before reaching in the box and retrieving one of the figures, a guinea fowl in flight.</p><p>“He offered this work of his unskilled hands, and promised he would improve, all while only offering gratitude and asking for nothing. I was not alone in this either, Lady Hera and Aunt Hestia also received carved offerings in the form of one of their sacred animals. After this boy had sent a few of these, he sent this box, saying that he didn’t know how to do things with wood so he carved it too, all from one piece,” Artemis added with a chuckle, which caused the huntress to check. Sure enough, the entire chest had no seams, it was simply two larger pieces of wood carved into the desired shape, decorated and fitted with a lid.</p><p>“He said that if we are keeping them maybe can put them in this, and if not then a box is always useful,” which received a dumbfounded expression from the huntress causing Artemis to laugh.</p><p>“My lady, if I may ask, how old is this boy?” Asked Zoe, with a slight frown. “I fear he may be trying to meddle in divine politics, praying to three goddesses and seemingly asking nothing.”</p><p>This got a mischievous grin from the goddess before she answered.</p><p>“Well Zoe, we thought he was young, but this last August he prayed to us on his birthday, apparently having just turned 8,” and shortly started laughing at her lieutenant’s expression, before settling after a minute.</p><p>“Regardless Zoe, with this last offering, we have a new mission, though one that should be simple enough. The three of us agreed that with one more offering I would be sent to find and retrieve the boy that we may meet him, and this arrived this morning. Therefore, we will be setting off to find and retrieve young Percy, while doing some hunting along the way of course.”</p><p>Zoe smirked at the mission. Her lady was right naturally, finding and retrieving an 8 year old boy was as good a vacation to the Hunt. The girls would be be sure to be happy about this.</p><p>“We will be setting off to New York in the morning. We can take our time on this one, but that’s no reason to become lazy. Head to bed Zoe, and goodnight,” Artemis finished with a smile.</p><p>“By your word my lady, and a good night to thee as well,” Zoe said with a smile, before heading to bed herself.</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p>All gods possess the ability to trace the geographic origin of a prayer, but as goddess of the Hunt, Artemis had a somewhat improved version of this, as she did in tracking all things. Through this, she had led the hunt to the state of New York, and traced the sense of the boy’s prayers to one particular woodlands, that of the so-called Big Indian Wilderness. Yet as they drew closer to their mark, the goddess felt a change in the air, and with it a number of notable occurrences.</p><p>None of her separate scouting groups had come across as much as a single monster in the area, and numbers had decreased even as they drew. The most they ever found were scattered piles of gold dust, a sure sign that monsters had perished there, but nothing more.</p><p>Another thing that caught the eye of the hunt was that the nature spirits in the area acted strangely.</p><p>For one, they were out and about a lot more. Nature spirits are by nature retiring, preferring to spend their time inside of their trees or bodies of water, and rarely venturing far away. Yet those here were openly social with each other. To make their behavior stranger still, every spirit the group had drawn close to had bowed with the deepest respect to the goddess and the hunters in complete silence before leaving, fading into their trees and bushes and streams with nothing more than a smile and the occasional chuckle. As it was only the goddess’s due, this did not perturb her overly, but the hunters found this very strange indeed. Acknowledgement for their works was few and far between, let alone being honored for it as they so clearly were.</p><p>Finally, Artemis traced the sense of the boy to a pond, one he had clearly spent a great deal of time around. The water was pristine, it’s depths completely transparent yet seemingly endless, and the light filtering through the canopy danced across its mirror-like surface. Normally the group would be eager to bathe in such a find, yet something held them back from suggesting such, and a stillness fell upon them, a sense of patience and waiting, though for what Artemis was unsure.</p><p>After a few minutes a ripple formed across the water, and a naiad rose from the pond, a kind smile upon her face as she bowed deeply to first the goddess, then the hunters. Unlike the other spirits they had encountered, this one simply stood and waited with a gentle patience, before at last the goddess broke the silence.</p><p>“Greetings naiad, I am Artemis, and this is my hunt. What is your name?” said Artemis. While the goddess was not normally one for such pleasantries, something told her that this spirit was not one to be trifled with, and treating them politely would be far more rewarding.</p><p>At her greetings, the spirit gave a soft laugh before replying, “Greetings Lady Artemis and honoured hunters, my name is Elena and I am the spirit of this pond. You have been expected.”</p><p>This statement immediately put the group on edge even as she felt a dim recollection of the name, and Artemis could feel her girls tense around her, some grabbing knife hilts while others knocking arrows on undrawn bowstrings.</p><p>“Why are we expected, Elena, and by whom?” The goddess asked tersely. If she had led her girls into an ambush, this spirit would be the first to feel her wrath.</p><p>The naiad shook her head, almost teasingly as she held her hands in a sign of surrender.<br/>“My Lady, we had reasoned your coming for sometime, and we mean you no harm, quite the opposite. The one whom you seek only ever desires to honour you and yours.”</p><p>The words sparked a memory in the goddess before she spoke.<br/>“You know of whom we seek. You are his mother, are you not?”</p><p>The naiad gave a small laugh before answering. “Yes, I am Elena, one of Percy’s mothers, and it is an honour to meet you, my lady,” she said, bowing once more.</p><p>Artemis could feel the tension bleed from the group at the mother’s answer, soon becoming small smiles at the kindly spirit. The group had been informed about who they hunted, and if Elena was the mother of the boy that had been honouring their goddess so highly, there was little chance that they would seek to harm them.</p><p>“Thou doth say thou reasoned our coming? How so?” asked Zoe, ever cautious. One of the Hunts main weapons was surprise, and having a group of spirits predict their actions unnerved her somewhat.</p><p>“When our son informed the three of us of his offerings, we knew that it would not go unnoticed. It only made sense that you would be the one to seek us out, m’lady, having far more dealings in the mortal realm than the others he worships,” Elena answered, allowing Zoe to relax some as she nodded her understanding. It was simply a logical conclusion, not some conspiracy, and a well-reasoned at that.</p><p>Artemis gave a wry smile before saying, “Well, if you knew of our coming, and know of our purpose, will you show us the way to your son?” She wasn’t particularly surprised when the naiad shook her head in response; it only made sense that a mother was protective of their child. Yet what Elena said next did surprise her.</p><p>“No, m’lady, I will not. But not because I don’t want to, rather that I don’t know where he is right now. Percy is widely travelling. He has taken a liking to adventuring, as well as protecting these woods from monsters.”</p><p>Artemis found herself in shock, as a piece of the puzzle clicked into place. That explained the piles of gold dust. The boy, an 8 year-old boy, had been single handedly hunting and slaying all monsters in the region, leading the nature spirits to feel safer and be more sociable. To be doing so at that age, he must be truly talented and lucky, if not also powerful indeed. A pity that he was not a girl, then she would recruit him in an instant!</p><p>The goddess was jarred from her thoughts when Elena spoke once more.</p><p>“Percy knew of your coming, and has made himself scarce. He honours you m’lady, yet he fears the gods, and desires not to be found before he is ready. He informed me of two things however. That he would be here on both the Summer and Winter solstice.”</p><p>Artemis couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Cunning of him to have a known location on the only days the gods were sure to be occupied. “And the second thing?” She asked.</p><p>Elena smiled before walking onto the land and gesturing for the group to follow her.</p><p>“It is more something that should be shown, m’lady, it is a short walk from here.”</p><p>Glancing at Zoe, who simply shrugged in response, Artemis led the group after the naiad a few minutes before she felt them reach a barrier of sorts, her skin tingling a little as they passed it, causing the goddess to raise an eyebrow at Elena who answered with, “A simple barrier for climate control and to deter monsters. He didn’t want his work to be ruined,” which gave the goddess more questions than answers. Eventually, the naiad stopped for a moment and grinned at the group, before saying,</p><p>“He said he hopes you like it,” before leading the group through one last set of bushes in to a clearing.</p><p>What she saw there made the goddess wide eyed as she looked at what the boy, Percy, had made.</p><p>Standing in the clearing were three shrines set in a line. They were constructed of a familiar grey stone, yet the difference in scale to his previous works was enormous. Each shrine consisted of a statue, rising to about 8 feet tall, set on hewn stone steps with a small stone brazier set before each.</p><p>As expected, each statue depicted one of the three goddesses the boy honoured, yet there was something about them that breathed life and energy into the air around them.</p><p>Artemis couldn’t help but move closer to examine them. The first of them in the center of the group, her Aunt Hestia’s statue, showed her seated on a chair that been carved to look plush and comfortable, dressed in a simple chiton and veiled. She held a fire in front of her with both hands that looked to be moving it was so lifelike, and she found herself double checking that it was in fact stone. Yet it was the face that drew her own eyes time and time again. While the face looked nothing like the goddess in question, at the same time it showed everything that she was. The smile was kind and welcoming, with just a hint of mischief. The lines on it’s face showed infinite patience even at her own expense. And the eyes depicted an endless depth of kindness, warmth and strength.</p><p>Almost numbly the goddess made her way next to her step-mother’s shrine on the left. The statue showed the queen of the gods standing tall and proud, dressed in a more regal floor length gown and holding a peacock on one arm. Everything about the statue’s posture screamed royalty, yet there was more to it than that. After a moment, it clicked and Artemis felt no small awe at the boy’s insight.</p><p>Not only was Hera standing proud and strong, she was standing defiant and protective, defending something behind her, and the face only reinforced this image. Once again it looked nothing like the Queen, yet her brow spoke of focus, her small smirk spat in the face of her enemy, and her eyes roared with a fierce will to protect those she loved.</p><p>The goddess of the hunt was almost afraid to look at her own shrine, so deep was the boys insight of the gods, but eventually she forced herself to look at Percy’s depiction of her.</p><p>He did not disappoint. Rather than seated or standing, This statue showed the goddess of hunt, well, hunting. The statue was sprinting, wearing a more athletic chiton with an arrow nocked ready to her bow, giving a sense of rapid movement, muscles bunching with power and speed. And the statues face. While not her own, it’s face was undeniably beautiful, something it shared in common with the other two. A long braid flew behind it as the statue ‘ran’. It’s smile spoke of the fierce joy of the hunt, and her eyes held a multitude. Pride at her skill, joy in the rush of the hunt, determination to find her mark and a depth of beauty that astonished her.</p><p>Artemis could only liken the statue to a mirror. Not a petty one that Aphrodite might prefer, but one that showed the truth of the matter, who the subject really was. The goddess had expected to be disappointed at not seeing her own face on the stone, yet couldn’t find it in herself to dislike this depiction. He had captured her features as if from a description, yet by having no further reference had made something that showed her heart rather than just her face.</p><p>Still, it wouldn’t do for the boy to worship at the feet of an imposter, no matter how well crafted.</p><p>With a careful flick of her hand, the statues features changed, just enough that it was recognizably her, while still maintaining the depth of the boy’s creation, and Artemis let out a little sigh of relief that her pride had not ruined his work.</p><p>Smiling now, the goddess turned to the clearly nervous Elena before saying.</p><p>“While I cannot speak for the other two, you may tell the boy that I am pleased with his work,” which caused the naiad to sigh with relief.</p><p>“I’m glad it is to your liking, m’lady. Percy obsessed over the details of those statues, yours more so than the others,” Elena said, getting a curious look from the goddess.</p><p>“He knew that a simple description would not let him do you justice, and thought that most stories got you wrong,” she explained. “He wanted to show that you loved who you are, and what you do, and the freedom it gives you. Not the anger, sorrow, grief and hatred that the stories paint you with.</p><p>To quote my son, ‘if the stories say she feels all of those, then she must feel a lot, which means she feels the good stuff too’.”</p><p>The naiad’s words, <em>Percy’s</em> words, struck the goddess. How had this boy, who had never seen her, spoken to her or spent any time in her presence, managed to understand something that her fellow immortals had missed even with millennia spent together?</p><p>Elena gave a little laugh at the goddess’s expression.</p><p>“If there is one thing that is true of my boy, it’s that trying to predict or fully understand him is useless,” and Artemis found herself nodding in agreement. If the boy was like this at 8, what would he become in the future? The thought filled the goddess with dread and excitement, and she knew, as sure as her brother’s prophecies, that Percy would be at the center of something huge.</p><p>“You may camp here for the night, or beside my pond. The spirits will respect your hunt, as Percy has asked of them, and will help you with anything you need,” Elena said, getting a nod from the goddess.</p><p>The hunt quickly set up camp inside the barrier, seeing the benefits of climate control and monster deterrence beyond the fact that attacking the Hunters was suicide. The girls set about their duties for the evening, as the local naiad’s delivered buckets of water to the group and dryads piled dead wood for their fires. Artemis for her part explored the area, wanting more insight into the boy, Percy’s, character. After some time exploring, she came across a long glade, perfect for a range. Someone had clearly thought the same thing, as large targets were set up at various distances. Yet when putting her tracking skills to use, she found arrows in every direction bar that of the targets, including behind what was clearly the stating line. The results of the search were as comical as they were baffling. How was it possible that someone was that bad at archery?</p><p>As if in answer to her question, the goddess felt a slight breeze and a voice said, “I know right? It just doesn’t make any sense how bad that boy is with a bow. Or it didn’t at least.”</p><p>The goddess turned to see an aurae sitting on a stone that had clearly been used as a seat before, seeing as it was carved to have armrests.</p><p>“Who are you, and what do you mean, It didn’t make sense?” The goddess asked, curious. The spirit was clearly friendly, as where all the spirits in the area, so she felt safe enough conversing with this one.</p><p>“My name’s Zelia, my lady, and I’m one of Percy’s mothers,” she said with a small giggle. “And to answer your question, after doing some looking into it, we decided there was some external factor influencing his complete and utter lack of skill. Something is preventing mon fils from ever being good, or even average with a bow. He was making shots so bad that they seemed physically impossible. A danger to everyone around him, including directly behind him! Mon pauvre garçon. He so wanted to learn your signature weapon, my lady. Broke his little heart,” the mother said with a sad smile.</p><p>Somehow, this endeared the boy to the goddess further. He had wanted to learn the bow because it was her signature weapon and was heartbroken that he simply couldn’t? Artemis decided then and there that when she found the boy and if he was respectful, she would try and figure out what kept him from learning it.</p><p>“Of course, he knew that he had to have a ranged weapon if he wanted to stay alive, so he picked up throwing knives! Took to them like a duck on water,” the aurae said with a laugh. “If you look around I’m sure you’ll see the results.”</p><p>The goddess raised an eyebrow at this and started searching the area. Sure enough, each of the ranged targets had a number of holes in the inner rings that looked to be knife marks, and she soon spotted a number of smaller targets hanging from high branches all around the area that on closer inspection showed knife marks in their bulls-eye as well. It made sense to the goddess that something must be stopping him learning the bow, if he was this proficient with throwing knives.</p><p>They shared many attributes in common, and whatever was affecting the boy, clearly throwing knives fell into a blind spot with it.</p><p>The goddess and aurae made their way back to the camp, where Artemis soon spotted Zoe talking to Elena and an unknown dryad. Elena brighten as she arrived, giving Zelia a hug before turning to face the goddess.</p><p>“Lady Artemis, we were just discussing future stays for your Hunt. This is Aspasia, Percy’s third mother,” indicating the dryad who bowed deeply to her with a murmured “My Lady.”</p><p>The goddess nodded at the mother before turning back to Elena, who was clearly acting as spokesperson for the three.</p><p>“Percy visited Aspasia’s tree and asked her to inform your group of a few things. The first is that you are always welcome to use this area. His home is your home, as he so eloquently put it,” she said with a brief chuckle.</p><p>“All he asks is that you do not camp here in an effort to detain him. If you use it while passing through, or a slightly extended stay, or gods forbid, a sanctuary, that is all more than fine. And if you find him in that fashion, then so be it. He will go with you willingly. He only asked that you do not wait here in an effort to catch him.”</p><p>This got a frown from the goddess. The boy was asking a lot as he had no true authority here, it being her domain. But on the other hand, they were not looking for him for anything he had done wrong, and he had even persuaded the local spirits led by his mothers to be active in their hospitality. Maybe the sight of the shrines had finally made her soft as his devotion wore her down? Either way, eventually she nodded, which had Zoe giving her a surprised look.</p><p>“This is fine, my Lieutenant. He has had these fine folk offer their home and hospitality, and has done nothing to deserve our anger short of being male. Besides, attempting to catch him while we’re passing through can be something of a game to the Hunt,” she added with a grin, receiving a smirk from Zoe as she understood her mistresses intent.</p><p>“Did the boy have any other messages?” She asked the three mothers. This caused the three to look at each other, having an unspoken conversation, that ended with small chuckles and wry grins as well as some worried frowns.</p><p>Finally, Aspasia turned to the goddess and spoke.<br/>“My Lady, Percy bade me inform you of something. He knew that this might earn your anger, but was very insistent that I tell you,” she began, before looking directly into the goddess’s silver eyes.</p><p>“My son bade me inform you, that while he is present, you and your hunt are under his protection,”<br/>Aspasia said, quickly raising his hand in an attempt to stem her obvious rising anger. “He is aware that you do not need, nor necessarily even want this protection, but has told us he could never live with himself if you or any of your followers were harmed and he could have prevented it. He sees you and yours as family, even if he has never met you. And our son holds family above all else.”</p><p>This left the goddess feeling confused. For one, how <em>dare</em> this boy claim to protect her or her hunt? But on the other hand, he said he is completely aware that they won’t need or want his protection, but that he could not live with himself if he didn’t. That was a sentiment she could not recall ever experiencing from a man, let alone a boy, and she could not decide how she felt about that. And to see them as family was something far too ridiculous for the claim to be false. Even stating such was putting her son at risk, and the dryad was surely aware of this.</p><p>“My lady, I want you to know that our son is completely devoted to you and the other goddesses,” Elena said with a hint of desperation in her voice. “I can see it even now. He would rather die than let you or anyone he cares about come to harm. I ask you please, do not reject this! He is compelled to do it, and your rejection with tear him apart, even as he followed through regardless,” she finished, just barely stopping herself from sobbing as the other two held her in their arms.</p><p>If Artemis was confused before, she was downright troubled now. That she knew of she had done nothing to earn such devotion from the boy, Hades, he even knew that his protection was unwanted!<br/>What drove him to such lengths? Zoe, for her part, seemed equally troubled by this revelation, her brow furrowed as she frowned in thought.</p><p>Finally Artemis spoke with a sigh. “If he will attempt to guard us from harm in spite of our feelings, then rejection will cause nothing but harm. Tell him he is free to guard us as he sees fit, as long as he remains unseen,” she said raising a hand stop Zoe’s outburst.<br/>“It is fine my lieutenant. After all, all we have to do is simply not need guarding,” which caused her to frown, then nod with a little scowl, before saying, “As thou wills it, my lady. Thou can inform the rest of thine Hunt however,” she finished with a little smirk, earning a chuckle from the rest.</p><p>That night as the Hunt lay asleep and Artemis felt Diana drive their chariot through the sky, she couldn’t help but ponder the enigma that was Percy. His devotion was unasked for and, aside from her having some power over the wilds, unearned. That he would go so far for them, for her, even at this young age troubled her somehow. And all of that was quite aside from claiming them as family. She sighed, struggling to make herself comfortable to sleep, and remained troubled throughout the night.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ok, so no Percy in this chapter really, but more what he has been up to. You'll definitely be getting some of him in the next chapter, as well as some interactions to help put his wild nature in context as well. This chapter was more about establishing what's been going on, and will be playing a role in the rest of the fic. Sorry if the lack of wild boy disappoints!<br/>Once again, thanks for reading and all the best! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 3: Of Meetings and Fish</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>(The missing chapter!)<br/>The Goddesses meet the mothers and Percy has a dilemma.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 3: Of Meetings and Fish</b>
</p><p>The Hunters made their way into Camp Half-blood for the first time in a long time, something that caused a great deal of grumbling in the campers, not to mention their own ranks. Sending Zoe to oversee the rest of the hunters getting settled in for a well earned break, Artemis made her own way to the big house. Seated at a table was a centaur and a short, portly man in a Hawaiian shirt whose presence caused Artemis to frown.</p><p>“Lady Artemis, it has been quite some time,” greeted Chiron, earning a small smile from the Goddess in turn.</p><p>“That it has, Chiron,” she said before turning to greet her fellow god.</p><p>“Dionysus,” she said shortly, with a cold look, with the god of wine replying with an equally short and cold “Artemis.”</p><p>She held no love for her step-brother, him being a representative of so many of the things she found so repulsive in males. For his part, he found the goddess to be stuck up and cold, no-fun at the best of times, and deadly at the worst. They greeted each other far more out of obligation than any desire to spend time in the other’s presence.</p><p>Artemis took a moment to look out on the camp, a small frown on her face as she saw children of Aphrodite flitter about, saw the Ares’ sons strut like it made them better than those around them. Seeing the sons of her twin brother attempt to flirt with her Hunters drew a furious scowl from her, that morphed in moments to a grim smile as she caught the sounds of her Hunter’s retribution.<br/>Her hunters held no love for Camp Half-blood, a sentiment she shared even while acknowledging the necessity of its presence. As much as she would enjoy her fellow gods stopping cavorting with mortals, she had been forced to admit thousands of years ago that this was unlikely, and those children needed somewhere safe. And as a safe space for demigods, it was really the only viable place to have an extended stay.</p><p>When questioned by her girls why they could not simply stay at the Sanctuary as Percy’s home had been christened, she had reminded them that the Hunt’s stays there were not to be overly extended so as not to abuse their host’s hospitality. A reminder that brought much grumbling in the group as it was this same hospitality that made the spot so desirable.</p><p>The hunt had been sure to make use of the area every time they had passed by in the past year, and had even detoured out of their way to pass through those pleasant woods. Percy’s mothers had taken a liking to the hunters, and always provided delicious food while mothering the girls indiscriminately, something Artemis found incredibly amusing until that same maternal force was turned on her. No one in that home, guest or not, mortal or immortal, would go hungry, thirsty or unloved; that much they made clear.</p><p>Not just the company but the place itself held a gentle calm to it that made them loath to leave it with every visit. The girl’s enjoyed using Percy’s range, including his knife targets, and more of them had taken an interest in knife throwing since they had began visiting the place. The shrines too, brought the Hunt back time and time again. With each visit, the designs would grow, the accompanying animals would increase in number, and on the last visit about a month ago, there had been another statue that had left the Hunters awed. The visit before that, Phoebe had sworn she had seen a flash of movement and skin, and had tracked it relentlessly before the trail ran cold with nothing more to be found. When they had arrived last month, the three mothers had brought the huntress to the shrine with grins on their faces.</p><p>Waiting for them to one side of the shrine to Artemis stood a lifelike statue of Phoebe herself, running alongside her mistress. The statues face was alight with a fiery determination, somehow speaking of her loyalty and desire to please her goddess, as well as her own fierce joy in the hunt.<br/>On seeing the statue, the mothers had informed the group that it was a reward for coming close to catching him, and that with permission, he would eventually make one for each of them.<br/>Quite aside from the pleading expressions on her girl’s faces, Artemis herself couldn’t say yes fast enough. This was a way to immortalise her huntresses in a way that mattered.</p><p>Why it mattered, having a statue placed in a forest shrine in the middle of nowhere, she didn’t know; only that it did.</p><p>Artemis’ thoughts wondered back to when she had told the other two goddesses about the shrine. To say they were astonished was an understatement.</p><p> </p><p>(Flashback)</p><p>Artemis arrived at Hestia’s palace, the agreed upon place for these meetings as a more neutral ground. After settling down and enjoying the first sip of nectar, Hera asked that first question.</p><p>“Well, did you manage to find the boy?” she asked, curious. Hestia perked up, eager to hear of what occurred. As with her, Percy had not ceased in his offerings to the two goddesses and their curiosity concerning him had only grown with time, let alone the offerings of his hand-made sculptures.</p><p>“In truth the answer to that is both yes and no,” she said with a sigh. This earned almost identical looks of interest from the pair, a forceful reminder that they were sisters.</p><p>In answer, Artemis retold the tale of the Hunt finding the woods, the lack of monsters and the reactions of the nature spirits. “We then met the first of Percy’s mothers, a naiad by the name of Elena. She welcomed us, and told us that since they knew Percy’s offerings would be noticed, they had expected the Hunt to arrive at some point,” which got some raised eyebrows. Predicting the moves of the hunt, even in the loosest sense, was deliberately difficult and worthy of respect.</p><p>Artemis took another sip before continuing.</p><p>“Then she led us to something which quite honestly shocked me.” Artemis smirked, knowing she had their full attention. After a small battle of wills, Hera finally broke and asked, “Well, what did she show you?” Which a drew a smile from the auburn goddess, before she stood and said,</p><p>“I don’t think an explanation will do it justice. Instead, allow me to take you there,” before holding out her hands to the pair.</p><p>The two goddesses of family rose from their seats and held her hand, before she flashed all three of them to Elena’s pond.</p><p>Upon arrival, the naiad quickly rose from the waters to meet them, greeting them her characteristic warm smile. “My Ladies, a pleasure to see you! And to you Lady Artemis, wonderful to see you dear,” she said before giving the goddess of the hunt a hug that was met with a warm laugh.</p><p>Hera was shocked to see her step-daughter being so friendly with a lowly naiad of all things, while Hestia for her part could only smile widely as she watched the interaction. She could feel the strength of the mother’s love and found herself immediately warmed to her.</p><p>“You must be Elena, one of Percy’s mothers,” Hestia said warmly.</p><p>“That I am, Lady Hestia. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” The naiad said brightly.</p><p>“Oh please, call me Hestia.”</p><p>Elena laughed a little. “If you insist, Hestia,” she said before giving the goddess of the hearth a warm hug in turn.</p><p>A bit perturbed by the ease of the interactions, Hera spoke up. “Artemis informed us that you showed her something that Percy had done,” which received a warm chuckle from the naiad.</p><p>“Lady Artemis! How could you, letting them go in blind?” The mother chided teasingly, getting a soft laugh from the goddess of the hunt.</p><p>“Well, you got to see my reaction the first time. It’s only fair you get to see theirs too.”</p><p>“Ah huh, and it has nothing to do with you getting to see it, then?” Elena asked, leading the huntress to attempt to look nonchalant, badly, causing the naiad to laugh once more before saying,</p><p>“Right, well I suppose I might as well give you the authentic experience. Right this way, my ladies!”</p><p>The pair followed the naiad, slightly bemused as she and the goddess of the hunt chatted about the well-being of particular hunt members, something that drew further curious looks from the two goddesses out of the loop.</p><p>After a few minutes, Elena led them into Percy’s barrier, which drew a nostalgic response from the pair, before giving them the same dramatic reveal she had performed for Artemis previously.</p><p>Their reactions did not disappoint. Artemis couldn’t help but chuckle at the surprise on their faces, both of them closely examining the other two’s statues before turning to their own.</p><p>Hestia turned to her first, with a wide smile, and a firm nod, before being wrapped in a hug by her niece and Percy’s mother. After a few minutes, Hera turned to them, a fragile smile on her face and tears building in her eyes.</p><p>Eventually she spoke, “This is how he sees us?” which drew a chuckle from Artemis.</p><p>“I could not believe it myself, but this is all of his work. I changed my statues features just enough to make them mine, yet the eyes and smile stayed the same. He saw everything. And had never seen me.” She said, with a chuckle that sounded just a little watery.</p><p>Elena moved forwards, and gently took the Queen’s hands before saying, “My son, he is special. He’s sees the truth in all things, a truth that some don’t know is there. He sees not what someone is, but who they are, and could be, if only things had gone right. What they are capable of.</p><p>He sees you as a fierce protector of family, and knows you treasure it above all. And for that, he honours you,” she said, indicating the fierce statue before them.</p><p>Hera let out a little choked sob, displaying more vulnerability then Artemis had ever seen, before she dried her eye with one hand, and flicked the other at the statue. Just as with that of Artemis, the features changed just subtly to clearly resemble her own, while still keeping all the life and emotion that made the statue so special before. With a smile, Hestia did the same, something that drew a warm laugh from Elena.</p><p>“Thank you my ladies. Percy told me he felt ashamed that he did not know your likeness to make the statues resemble you in truth.”</p><p>The three goddesses shared a look before Hestia said, “I think I speak for all of us when I say your son’s efforts are admirable, and that he has nothing to be ashamed of,” which got nods of agreement from the other two.</p><p>“Would it be possible to meet your son? I would very much like to speak with him,” Hera asked with a surprisingly shy smile.</p><p>Elena smiled. “My son has a healthy respect for the gods, and does not want to be met directly as of yet. However, he does have an arrangement with Lady Artemis I believe?”</p><p>Artemis then explained the arrangement that had the Hunters passing through the woods and looking for him as they did. The others had laughed, hearing how he had rewarded Phoebe for almost finding him.</p><p>“Cheeky as the boy may be, I cannot hate him for it,” Artemis commented, receiving laughs from the others. Elena then introduced the two goddesses to Aspasia and Zelia, Percy’s other mothers, and shared a surprisingly nice afternoon, discussing Percy’s upbringing.<br/><br/><br/>(End Flashback)</p><p>Percy’s upbringing was.... strange to say the least. By all appearances the three mothers had done good job of raising a demigod, with having no warning, experience or equipment. Somehow, the circumstances around him led to the forming of a child earnest enough to create master pieces and hunt for offerings to goddesses he knew little of, asking nothing in return, and yet still shy from their attention. Yes Percy was an enigma, one that she would solve.<br/>In the meantime, there was a Camper’s flag to capture, the goddess thought with a smirk.</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p> </p><p>Percy had been enjoying his travels. He was by nature a simple boy. As long as he had food, wasn’t actively dying to the weather or monsters, and had something to do, he was happy enough.</p><p>Currently his thing to do was follow rivers.</p><p>Why?</p><p>Because humans were making an awful mess of them, and he could help.</p><p>So he did.</p><p>He had spent the last week following this one river, cleaning as he went, spending his time singing and thinking. Now, Percy was not one naturally given to introspection. It required a depth of thought, a capacity for thinking about thinking, that his young ADHD driven brain simply refused on any given day. That was not to say he was unintelligent. Rather that any smarts he had were far more given towards more practical problems. He knew nothing of the political climate, had not the faintest idea about the economy, and if someone asked him what algebra was he might say it sounded like some sort of rare berry, yet he could field dress almost any given animal and utilise every part of their remains. However, as much as he was enjoying following the river and cleaning it, after a week or so, this had become somewhat automatic. Even the singing, while sometimes tricky, took little to no conscious effort on his part. All of this inevitably left his active young mind without something to occupy it.</p><p>And so, for perhaps the first time in his life, Percy was contemplating a moral dilemma:<br/>He was questioning the ethics of eating fish (not that he knew what ethics were).</p><p>See, he had been raised in the wilds by nature spirits, and so had a very practical perspective of the world. You kill things for food, and to stop yourself getting dead.</p><p>But, he reflected, the things he killed to eat didn’t normally talk to him.</p><p>Fish were food. Bears ate them, birds ate them, cats and dogs ate them, he thought, untangling yet another net before slicing it into pieces that would break down without killing anything. But he’d never had to kill the fish before, even the ones he had eaten at home. Maman told him that it was important that he ate them, and he believed her, his Maman being widely travelled and knowing all sorts of strange things. Who came up with zero? Like, a number for nothing?</p><p>Anyway, fish.</p><p>It was important he ate them, and they tasted good, something that counted for a great deal to the growing boy. But they talked. They called him lord, and young prince, which made him uncomfortable. That he knew of, only the gods got called things like Lord, and he didn’t know what a prince was, but it sounded important, which he was pretty sure didn’t apply to him. But they talked. And so far only things like nature spirits and humans talked, which he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to eat? He hadn’t before, and wasn’t planning on it any time soon. But Maman said he was supposed to eat fish, and other animals ate them?<br/>Percy held his head as a headache started to form, even as he used his water powers to filter the river water for this particular stretch.</p><p>He was overthinking it, probably. This wasn’t something he had ever done before to his knowledge, and only knew it was something you could do because his mothers sometimes told each other that.<br/>So, his Maman told him to eat fish, other animals ate them, and they tasted good. This meant he could eat them. But, since they talked to him, he should kill them fast and painlessly, and only eat them when there was nothing else around.</p><p>Percy felt very proud of his thinking, and was just thinking about how good it was that he could think things through, when he heard a set of voices coming from nearby.<br/>Swiftly climbing a tree to hide, he narrowed in on the voices.<br/><br/>“Run!” “I’m not leaving him!” “You can’t fight these Annabeth, come on! Luke will hold them off!”<br/>“No, I’m not leaving him!” “Baa, come on Annabeth, we gotta go!”<br/><br/>Two girls, one younger than the other, he thought as he bounced soundlessly across tree branches towards their voices, and someone called Luke. And a satyr?<br/>Percy was weary of satyrs. Some of them were good, while he had heard plenty of stories from spirits about how bad some of them could be.<br/>Getting closer, Percy could hear the barks of the creatures, and start to smell them.<br/>He wrinkled his nose as the scene pulled into view, quickly passing above the pair of girls.<br/>He really wished hellhounds would brush their teeth with a soft twig, the wild boy thought, very glad his Maman had been insistent on doing just that.</p><p>Maybe that’s why they always seem in a bad mood? He thought, beginning one of his spellsongs which caused the hound in question to stumble even as he dropped on it, plunging one of his knives into it’s eye.</p><p>As the first hound burst into dust, Percy threw another knife into the eye of a second hound, before kicking off a tree and vaulting onto the head of the third to kill it in the same fashion as the first, his blade passing into the brain of the monster, killing it with a whimper. Maybe if they weren’t in such a bad mood from bad breath, they would stop attacking people, he wondered as he dusted himself off and collected his thrown blade.</p><p>But then he’d stop being able to fight them, and he enjoyed fighting? He shrugged as he turned to leave, before a voice stopped him.</p><p>“Stop! Who are you?”</p><p>The young boy turned to look at the speaker, the blonde boy who had been struggling against the hounds. Luke, he reasoned.</p><p>Thinking about what to say for a moment, he answered.</p><p>“Percy.” It was a good answer, he thought.</p><p>“How did you do that?” the boy asked, caution and amazement lacing his voice.</p><p>Before he could answer, the pair of girls showed up, and immediately drew their weapons on seeing him, soon followed by the satyr who held a set of pipes wearily.</p><p>“Who’s the kid?” The taller, black, spiky haired girl asked, even as she moved to flank him, spear held level with his throat.</p><p>“Thalia stop,” said Luke. “He said his name is Percy, and he helped me. He killed all three and they didn’t touch him.”</p><p>The girls turned to him, shock and disbelief on their faces, before flicking their eyes between Percy, Luke and the piles of gold dust.</p><p>“Well,” said the girl apparently called Thalia, “Thanks for the help, I guess,” she finished, nodding at him. The small girl and the boy sheathed their blades, before the girl did something to her spear, making it shrink down to a tiny metal tube.</p><p>Percy darted forwards, eyes wide, looking at the tube then back at Thalia, before back at the tube. The blue-eyed girl, at first on edge due to barely seeing him move, soon found herself chuckling as the wild boy looked between the can and the girl.</p><p>“Haven’t seen that before huh?” she said with a chuckle, before extending the spear once more, soon outright laughing at his amazement. Percy could hear the little, grey-eyed girl giggle as he darted around the spear, looking and failing to find how something so big became so small.</p><p>“I’ve got something else to show you too,” Thalia said smugly. “No! Don’t-” was all Luke managed to yell, before she touched something on her wrist. The girl’s smug look turned to fear as Percy, seeing the terrifying visage on her replica Aegis, snarled in defiance, pouncing forwards at lightning speeds, his twin knives letting out a metallic scream as they attacked the shield’s surface. Thalia, barely standing after the first attack, quickly retracted the shield, leaving the young trio watching their wild saviour warily as he stalked where his enemy had disappeared from. With one last snarl, the boy flew up a tree, and disappeared as quickly as he arrived, running back to the river where he knew he was safe.</p><p>In the clearing, the blond boy scowled at his companion.</p><p>“Way to go Thalia. You chased him off. With a fighter that strong we’d have no trouble getting to camp! Now we have no chance of getting him to come with us!”</p><p>“Maybe we can go after him?” The smaller girl said, her grey eyes hopeful.</p><p>The satyr just shook his head. “No, you saw how fast he moved. He’s long gone now. Besides, he smelled... strange. Wild. Like he’s never lived in a city. We won’t find him, let alone catch him.”</p><p>The satyr was sad about that. Bringing a demigod that strong back to camp would have gotten him his searcher’s license for sure, if bringing Thalia back wasn’t enough. He also wanted to ask why he smelt so wild, so full of nature’s power. And he had heard him singing a spellsong as he came back. It must have been him. Luke didn’t know any, and it sure wasn’t the hellhounds. He wanted to know where he had learnt it. The satyr could still feel echoes of the song’s power in the air around them.</p><p>Thalia let out a scowl. “It’s better this way anyway. We don’t know anything about him, we can’t trust him,” she said, causing Luke to shake his head at his stubborn friend.</p><p>Inwardly however, Thalia was ashamed. She should have known the boy would react like that to Aegis from how he looked at the shrinking spear. The shield made even people familiar with it and expecting it flinch, let alone someone so clearly new to these things. Thinking about the boy made her curious. He seemed like a wild animal, the way he moved with deadly grace and reacted to her weapons, first with awe then treating it as an attack. So powerful and skilled, yet so clearly innocent, she thought with a small sad smile, remembering the wonder on his face as he examined the spear. And she had scared him off. Thalia sighed. She could only hope that they would meet again somehow. Then she could at least apologize.</p><p>Percy, for his part, scowled even as he arrived at the river site. He had rescued kids before that were being chased by monsters. It was much the same as just finding and killing the monster really, easier in fact, as the monsters were distracted. He supposed it was a good thing that he saved the kids too, though a part of him wished they saved themselves. Why were they all so weak? They should train with his mothers, that’ll make them strong.<br/>He couldn’t help but shake his head. This lot though. He’d saved them, even told them his name, when he normally didn’t even let himself be seen. And they attack him with that shield that made his brain go panicky. He hated being afraid, and was always angry when he did, hence attacking the shield. He wasn’t sure they meant to attack him, but why else would they do that? Remembering that the boy, Luke had tried to stop her, meant that it was probably an accident. He sighed. He hoped that they weren’t scared of him now. They seemed nice enough, and he would like to learn how the spear got big and small.</p><p>That seemed like a useful thing to know.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So.....yeah, I'm a moron. Anyways, here's the missing chapter lol.<br/>No idea how I missed it the first time, and I guess I missed it the other times by just posting the next chapter?<br/>Anyways, first meeting with Luke, Annabeth and Thalia, and a taste of how he's gonna act around campers.<br/>Hopefully my block will break soon and I can post another chapter. Guess we'll see.<br/>Hope all's well for you lot! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 4: We Get By With A Little Help From The Gremlin In The Woods</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>(Moar reshuffling)<br/>Percy meets the hunt</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 4: We Get By With A Little Help From The Gremlin In The Woods</b>
</p>
<p>It was the winter solstice, and the hunt had been on the move for days now. Lady Artemis had gone to Olympus per the custom of the gods, leaving Zoe in charge. Now there was nothing too unusual about this, Zoe had been Lieutenant of the Hunt for as long as it had existed, and had known this was approaching, even without her Lady’s reminders. Knowing Artemis would be leaving however, had little bearing on the fact that Zoe hated it that her mistress had to leave. The obsidian eyed huntress always missed Artemis on these occasions, a sentiment she knew the goddess shared, especially as she in turn had to spend the day with her godly family, only half of which she could tolerate on a good day. All of this meant that Zoe was distracted when it came to planning where the group would be camping. Only after they had settled on camping at the Sanctuary and were most of the way there did Zoe recall what her goddess had told her of the restrictions that came with using the site.</p>
<p>It had rankled the huntress that there were restrictions at all, but the safety and hospitality offered by Percy’s home and his mothers had lessened their sting, and it wasn’t as though they were unreasonable. Do not wait at the site to catch him, and do not use it on the day of the Summer or Winter Solstice. Simple enough, and it made a fun game of trying to find the boy whenever they passed by. His mothers would inform them of whether or not he was present so they never hunted fruitlessly, and he was incredibly skilled, even Zoe had to admit, however grudgingly. He had even taken to rewarding those who almost found him, using it to determine the order of their statues and driving the competition to greater heights. However, as the restrictions on the site were simple and almost ignorable in their leniency, they were also rather forgettable.</p>
<p>With a sigh, Zoe held up her arm to have the Hunt stop and gather so she could give them the bad news.</p>
<p>She had just opened her mouth to speak when the last two huntresses arrived, one bloodied and carrying the other.</p>
<p>“Tia, Elenor, what happened?” she said tersely, concern lacing her voice.</p>
<p>Tia, the one carrying the other girl spoke with a rasping voice, her breath heavy.</p>
<p>“We were scouting about a mile to the South when we spotted them. A large monster troupe.<br/>Laistrygonian’s, dracanae, hellhounds. Got spotted by scouts. Elenor took an arrow,” she said between breaths, and a quick glance confirmed that yes, she had an arrow sticking out of her thigh, and wouldn’t be running anytime soon.</p>
<p>The report shocked Zoe. There had been more and more sightings of organised monster groups, but this area had been clear for years thanks to the boy’s efforts, and monsters had started avoiding it.</p>
<p>They were getting bolder, she realised with dread.</p>
<p>A group consisting of at least three different species, one that was large and organised enough to be sending out scouts, was dangerous. They wouldn’t be able to face them head on, Zoe realised, but they couldn’t let a group like that live. Her millennia of experience came to her aid as her mind raced through their options.</p>
<p>The Sanctuary, she thought, her mind clicking into place. Part of the restrictions was that they would be lifted if they needed a place to retreat to, and it would be clear of monsters as Percy would have kept it clear. The perfect place to stage an ambush.</p>
<p>“Right,” Zoe said loudly, catching the group’s attention. “Phoebe and Elizabeth, thou art our fastest runners. I wouldst have thou stay with me and create traps in this area. We shall catch up to the rest afterwards. The rest of thee, run as fast as thou can to the sanctuary. Atlanta, thou art in command until I arrive. We shall ambush them there if the foul beasts follow.”</p>
<p>Nodding with agreement, the rest of the group sped off, with Marian, a large daughter of Ares picking up the wounded Hunter and keeping pace with the rest. For their part, the three remaining girls quickly set about trapping the area, starting from one end of the stretch of woods and laying a number of trip wires and snares with jars of Greek fire kept for this purpose as an explosive payload.</p>
<p>They sped through the process with the aid of their collective experience, but after only three minutes they start to hear the baying of the hellhounds and were forced to abandon any further traps to start running. Zoe’s heart pounded in her ears as they cleared the miles, and she felt a certain calm settle upon her.</p>
<p>The three of them had one task: retreat to the sanctuary.</p>
<p>She knew the other hunters would be lying in wait for them, and could only hope that one had chosen to alert the local spirits. Either they would make it, or they would not. She couldn’t help a small shudder at the thoughts of what might happen if they didn’t, but quickly shut it down.</p>
<p>They could only keep running.</p>
<p>After a few minutes, a series of explosions brought her a sense of grim satisfaction and a glimmer of hope, that was quickly snuffed as the baying of the hounds barely changed. She could only pray the traps had bought them enough time. The monster’s were gaining on them, spurred on by something they clearly feared more than the Hunters they chased. Zoe could feel her breaths growing heavy, even the blessing of Artemis able to sustain their pace, when at last they broke free of the tree line. Before them was a rolling expanse of field and hills, and after that, the Hunter’s sanctuary. She could feel the grim smile on her face as they crossed the distance, even as the hounds drew closer.</p>
<p>Then it happened.</p>
<p>Hidden in the tall grass following a small hill, a pot hole dug by some creature caused Zoe’s foot to drop the ground from under her, slamming her face first into the dirt. She was so close, the treeline only some 20 feet away, and all she could think was,</p>
<p>
  <em>I’m sorry M’lady. </em>
</p>
<p>She was going to die off a blasted pothole and tripping, inches from safety. She suddenly felt overwhelmingly frustrated, a spike of hot anger driving her to her feet, only to drop again, her twisted, probably broken ankle failing to hold her. She had just started to resign herself to her fate, when one of the senior hunters appeared beside her. The huntress, Atlanta, chuckled as she lifted Zoe to her feet with a small chuckle.</p>
<p>“Really now Zoe, is that any example for the Lieutenant to be setting for the new blood?” She joked, causing Zoe’s mind to blank. How was she so calm? <br/>She must have thought out loud, because Atlanta soon answered her question.</p>
<p>“Simple. We have reinforcements. Listen,” the daughter of Apollo said, indicating behind her.</p>
<p>At first Zoe didn’t understand what she meant, but on following the instructions, her brain began to process what she was hearing. Where before her ears had been full of the sound of her own heart and breath, with the sound of enemies close behind, what she heard now was completely different, and she found herself turning to try and understand it. <br/>Even as it met her eyes, she barely understood. What she heard was the shrieks of dying monsters, the howl of hellhounds as their time on Earth was cut short, with the twang of Hunter’s bowstrings playing in harmony. And the melody? A haunting song, overlaying the battlefield, with listening only a moment causing a jagged shard of despair to lance through her before she focused elsewhere. It wasn’t hard for the dark-eyed huntress to find a new focus.</p>
<p>One glance at the fight in progress told her that it was centred around one person, one who moved with such swiftness and grace that only her long years of combat experience enabled her to keep track of them, leaving only a growing trail of gold dust in their wake.</p>
<p>“You know how we always wondered at how some mere boy was able to keep this area clear of monsters? This was how, apparently.”</p>
<p>Zoe felt her jaw drop as her brain caught up to what her sister was saying. This elegant figure of dancing death was none other than the 11 year old they had been chasing all these years. <br/>This child, this boy committing wholesale slaughter, all while singing a song that pierced her defences the second she focused on it? This was Percy.</p>
<p>Shaking her head with a chuckle, Zoe found herself grinning, before yelling, “Well girls? We can’t let some boy have all the fun! Hunter’s attack! For Artemis!”</p>
<p>At her order, the Hunt, the silver clad elites of the Goddess of the Moon sped from the trees, loosing volley after volley of silver arrows before closing in to finish what remained of the monsters with their knives. The screams of the creatures soon rent the air, with what little had survived the boy’s, Percy’s, assault and the arrow storm soon making their way back to Tartarus.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>Percy had been intending to spend his day peacefully, as he traditionally attempted on the day of the solstice. He had done his exercise for the day, and a quick glance at the sky told him it was late afternoon just as he finished carving the third figurine he would be offering today, the conclusion of roughly a week of detailed work. He was pondering what he might have for dinner, his offerings already secured, when his Maman flew down through the canopy.</p>
<p>“Hello Maman!” Percy greeted his aurae mother with a bright smile. Repeated visits to Petros and Agathi over the years combined with the solitary nature of his lifestyle made him scarce with words, yet he always made sure to greet his mothers each time they visited him. Normally he would be far more excited to see her at this point, but he had been spending the last few days here, catching up with them in the meantime. Still, the look on his Maman’s face told him she was thinking.</p>
<p>“Hello my son!” Zelia said, smiling at her boy’s greeting before her face turned serious once more.</p>
<p>“Trouble?” Percy asked with curious tilt of his head, which never failed to bring a smile to his mother’s face even now.</p>
<p>Zelia found herself chuckling at him. Since becoming more scarce with words, Percy had somehow found a way to pack far more meaning in them than most. For example, his simple question of ‘Trouble?’ really meant ‘ what is troubling you? Is it something I can take care of for you?’</p>
<p>“Always such a good boy, mon petit oiseau,” she said with a smile, getting a small frown from the boy for not answering the question.</p>
<p>“But yes, mon fils, trouble, and a decision,” Zelia said seriously, getting a head tilt in the other direction telling her that yes, he was paying attention and he was curious. Interpreting Percy had become something of an art at which his mothers excelled.</p>
<p>“The Hunt is on its way here, pursued by a troop of monsters. They clearly wish to use this place to ambush them. What do you wish to do, mon petit? Whatever you do, know you will have our support.” She finished, giving him a sympathetic smile.</p>
<p>Percy nodded to his Maman as he thought about what to do and what it would mean, a small frown on his young face as he concentrated.</p>
<p>For her part, Zelia couldn’t help but smile as her son thought hard. For all that he had no talents for academia, so much so it had been quickly abandoned to teach him things that would be more useful out here, Percy could be frighteningly intelligent at times. If only because of how thorough his thoughts were, and how his mind approached problems. The mother could only sigh as she remembered how Percy had responded when asked to verbalise about how he would approach a series of famous battles. The depth of his answers and sheer cunning of his strategy had astounded her, and made the aurae think that, but for circumstance, he might have been a famous general.</p>
<p>Percy for his part was absorbed in thinking about the problem at hand.</p>
<p><em>The hunt was coming here</em>, he thought, o<em>n a day that they were not supposed to.</em> But they were running from monsters, which he supposed made it ok?<br/><em>Hang on, </em><em>running</em><em>?</em> That puzzled him briefly. <em>Hunt hunts monsters, not runs</em><em>. Why?</em></p>
<p>A small click in his brain.<br/><em>The Winter Solstice. Lady Artemis would be on Olympus. </em><em>No alpha, pack weak.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>Set that aside for now. </em>
</p>
<p><em>Run from monsters. Even alpha away pack fights. Pack weak, don’t think they can win. Why? Injury, small pack, strong </em><em>or too many</em><em> monsters. Any or all of these.<br/>What do? Coming here. Ambush monsters.</em> <br/>Percy knew the hunt, having watched and been hunted by them himself. He knew they were good. <br/>They could probably deal with the monsters...... but at what cost? If they were running from a direct fight, even with an ambush it might be close.</p>
<p>That settled it for him.</p>
<p>He turned to his mother with a stony expression and fire in his eyes, before declaring calmly,</p>
<p>“Will fight.”</p>
<p>Zelia for her part, shook her head briefly with a smile. She had known he would as soon as she had asked, but thought it better to leave him to decide that. Not fighting hadn’t really been an option though, not for Percy, who idolised the Hunt and venerated Lady Artemis. Not for the son of three mothers, raised to aid those in need and respect women. No, he was always going to help the Hunt here. Zelia let out another sigh. That need to protect would get him in trouble, she just knew it. Even right now. Fighting was certain to have him caught by the Hunt, there was no evading that. Yet he showed no hesitation in his choice, all factors clearly already considered.</p>
<p>The mother found herself smiling at her boy, proud that even when given the choice he had not chosen to abandon a fight clearly not his own to protect those in need.</p>
<p>“Well, mon petit oiseau, most of them are a few minutes out. I couldn’t spot Zoe or Phoebe, so they must be behind doing something to delay the monsters. If you leave now, you can help them. They are on the Southern side of the forest.” <br/><br/>With a quick nod and kiss goodbye to his Maman, Percy collected his weapons, never very far away. Strapping the twin leather belts of knives across his torso, one across his chest and the other across his waist, he cut quite the intimidating figure for an 11 year old as he made his way swiftly and silently through the tree tops. His choice of clothing hadn’t changed much over the years, with woven shorts and a pelt poncho of sorts, his usual winter gear. The poncho was lined with fur on the inside, while the outside was lined with drakon leather after one particularly memorable visit to Ohio that had landed him at the bottom of his Mom’s pond for three months to recover after staggering his way home. The same leather was used in his boots and fingerless gloves, which he wore out of difference to the winter chill, far preferring to go barefoot where possible. While due to his godly origins as a sea deity’s son he was resistant to extreme temperatures, that didn’t mean he enjoyed them overly much.</p>
<p>He soon arrived at the Southern side of the forest, he didn’t have to wait long to see what his maman had spoken of. The hunters hid themselves very well, even accounting for their silver gear, though, he thought briefly, with the small layer of snow and more bare trees, it probably actually helped them here. With bows out and tense stances, he could already tell they were ready for an ambush, which made approaching them risky. Still, it was probably better than revealing himself mid battle where he might be taken for an enemy, so with a convenient tree beside him, and a knife drawn in hand with the other held open, Percy found a branch to break and proceeded to stomp on it. His precautions proved wise as as soon as the snapping found filled the air, three hunters, newer ones he noted, spun and shot their arrows at him. Percy evaded the first and second, cutting the third from the air with his knife, ducking behind the tree, before exaggeratedly dropping the knife in plain view and stepping out again, hands held up in surrender.</p>
<p>Looking into the wary eyes of the hunt, all pointing arrows at them, he focused on remaining calm before one of them, Atlanta by his mother’s description, spoke.</p>
<p>“Who are you boy? Why are you here?” She said her voice tense.</p>
<p>“I’m Percy. To Help,” he said loudly but calmly.</p>
<p>There was a tense few seconds before she let her bowstring relax, obviously remembering he would be present here on this day. The other hunters followed her lead, though some seemed unhappy about it, especially when he retrieved his knife. For all of that, a few of them looked at him quite curiously, clearly wanting to question the boy who had been lending them his home the last few years. He could tell more of them would be acting this way, but the current situation still had them all on edge.</p>
<p>Soon enough, the sound of hellhounds could be heard in the distance and Percy could feel the huntresses tensing around him. Percy for his part, waved a hand before Atlanta’s face, catching her attention without touching her or breaking their cover. When she turned to him in question, he simply said, “I go. Help,” before speeding off sprinting low and silently towards the monsters and leaving the hunters shocked by his seemingly reckless actions. Cursing and getting ready to go after him, the huntress found herself blinking, stunned at at what was happening.</p>
<p>As soon as Percy reached the monsters, he started singing one of his more potent spellsongs, even as he began his killing spree.</p>
<p>(<a class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlenOmOWxI&amp;ab_channel=Berlinist-Topic">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLlenOmOWxI&amp;ab_channel=Berlinist-Topic</a>)</p>
<p>This song, originally meant to inflict the target with grief and guilt, had been altered slowly by him with his Mama’s help to specifically induce despair, a far more useful response for fighting monsters generally incapable of the original songs maladies. <br/>Or as Percy had put it, “If they don’t feel guilty it won’t do much, but I can make them feel sad and scared.” True to his song, Percy’s presence in the monster’s forces soon caused despair, with a few collapsing in terror from his voice, and others attempting to run, before being brought down by a precisely thrown knife, or later, a silver arrow from the huntresses joining the fray.</p>
<p>For his part, Percy felt only the calm satisfaction of fighting well, even as his blades flashed in the cold air. He killed so that those he cared about would not suffer.</p>
<p>Nothing more.</p>
<p>He took no joy in killing, not even when he pulled of particularly difficult counters, acrobatics or deadly thrusts sending a monster to Tartarus. He enjoyed the act of fighting well enough, and was almost always happy to spar with anyone willing, but killing was something he only ever did out of necessity. That was as his mothers had taught him, and now and in the future, Percy only ever sought to make them proud.</p>
<p>And if in making them proud he could aid in defending the family of one of the goddesses he honoured? So much the better.</p>
<p>He shortly fell into a rhythm, his blades a glinting blur as he weaved between blade and claw, steel and fang, his song a haunting accompaniment to his many-partnered dance. Each slice caused a shriek of pain as tendons and throats alike were cut, and short thrusts followed, leaving a burst of gold before he moved onto the next. All the while, brief flurries of thrown blades would flicker in the air before causing similar affect around the battlefield. In short order, the monster troupe was only so must dust tainting the snow, and Percy made his way to Zoe, who he recalled as the beta, the loo-ten-nant (strange word, he thought) of their hunt.</p>
<p>Approaching her, he noted how they stiffened in his presence, causing him to stop at a distance.</p>
<p>To try and set them at ease, the boy sheathed his knives, before taking off his belts and put them on the ground between them. Noting the shocked expression of the girls and concluding that he was still being rude, Percy then knelt with his hands in the air in surrender. Hoping this would appease them, he waited for them to respond. After what felt like forever to his overly energetic brain, Zoe finally spoke.</p>
<p>“Rise, boy,” she said, surprisingly softly he thought, her voice stark against the silence of the former battlefield. Rising to his feet, Percy carefully kept his eyes on the feet of the huntress, not wanting to anger her, but still wanting to know if she moved.</p>
<p>Zoe for her part, had once more been surprised by the boy. First he had laid waste to the monsters, then he had approached her and disarmed himself. Then, as if thinking that wasn’t enough, he had knelt as if to surrender himself. Even when told to rise, he made no move to retrieve his weapons and wouldn’t meet her eyes. After a moment, a thought arose that almost made her her laugh in spite of the pain that her ankle was giving her. The boy had always evaded capture, and knew they didn’t want to be protected. He probably thought he was going to be punished!</p>
<p>She had to suppress another chuckle. His aid had, in all probability, saved some of the hunter’s lives, so it was unlikely their lady would see fit to do so. Sure they could have won, but against a group this large they were almost certain to take losses to do so, leaving them in his debt in truth. Still, it was nice to see a man treating them with the proper respect, and his obvious surrender meant that he was likely to do as she ordered, meaning he would still be around to finally meet Lady Artemis which was sure to please her.</p>
<p>“Yuki, retrieve his weapons,” she ordered, a huntress coming forward and grabbing the belts, before bringing them to their leader. Zoe examined the belts and knives they carried. Drakon leather, she thought with no small shock. How in Hades had he killed a drakon? <br/>And the knives. Celestial bronze without a doubt. Crudely made, yet well maintained.</p>
<p>“How did you come by these knives boy?” She asked, speaking softly as if not to scare a wild animal. Which, the other huntresses found themselves realising, he very much was.</p>
<p>“Made them,” the boy said. His words were careful, as if precious and rarely used, and his voice was surprisingly high, forceful reminding those watching that he was still a boy yet, not even a teenager.</p>
<p>“You made them? How?” Asked Phoebe curiously.</p>
<p>“Empoussai legs,” he answered with only the barest hint of pride, shocking the group. They understood immediately what he meant. One of an empoussai’s legs was always a celestial bronze prosthetic. But that meant he had hunted and killed enough of them, deliberately removing their legs to scavenge enough metal to arm himself. In spite of themselves, the group was impressed with his ingenuity, with no small number noting that as an emergency source of the rare material.</p>
<p>“Who taught you to fight, boy? And that song, what was that?” Asked Zoe, still speaking softly.</p>
<p>“Moms. Spellsong.” Percy answered succinctly. Still it got the message across, and what it told her was no small shock, as if to add to the growing mystery of the boy. Percy’s mothers had taught him to fight? All this time, with every visit to his home, there had been skilled trainers and sparring partners right there? Her first impressions had been more correct than she had known; Percy’s mother’s were not to be trifled with.</p>
<p>Speaking of his mothers, they were probably waiting for them. <br/>“Boy, lead us to your shrine,” Zoe ordered softly yet firmly. Percy, for his part, let out a short sigh of relief. At the very least he would be able to say goodbye to his mothers before they punished him, maybe even do his Solstice prayers if they were nice. He should probably pray to Lady Artemis to at least kill him painlessly. He can always hope right? Without meeting any of their eyes, Percy took the lead of the group, walking at a slow pace to account for injured as he led them to his home.</p>
<p>Phoebe moved to the back of the group where Atlanta was helping the injured Zoe and spoke, <br/>“Sooooo, he thinks we’re going to punish him yeah?” Which got a laugh out of the pair.</p>
<p>“Yes, as he knew we didn’t want protecting and did it anyway. He appears to have surrendered himself to our judgement,” Zoe said, her voice amused.</p>
<p>“Wait, he knew we didn’t want protecting, did it anyway, and then goes ahead and surrenders himself, thinking that he’s definitely going to be punished for it?” Atlanta exclaimed, before letting out a low whistle. “Can’t say I expected that from a male,” she noted, which got a nod from the other two in turn. <br/>Men were scum as a rule, and to see one not only wanting to protect them in spite of thinking they’ll get punished for it, but following through and surrendering to said punishment was far outside their expectations.</p>
<p>They walked in silence for a few minutes before Phoebe asked, “So, are we going to punish him?”</p>
<p>Zoe smirked and said, “We shall leave that to Lady Artemis, but it is unlikely. However, he doesn’t know that,” which drew snickers from the pair.</p>
<p>Might as well mess with him while they had the chance right? While they appreciated his skill, no small number of them were a little bitter about how long he had evaded them as it stung at their pride as hunters. A chance to get back at him for that would be very welcome indeed.</p>
<p>A few minutes later saw the group arriving at the shrines, the centre of Percy’s home. As always, Zoe felt some awe at the work of this boy, the statues so lifelike that she could almost feel the presence of the goddesses they depicted, a feeling that had only grown since their faces had been changed by the goddesses in question. Zoe only had to look for a moment to find her own statue, one that had been there when they had visited some six months ago. How he had managed to capture so much about her without having spoken to her once, she was sure she would never know. She turned to look at the statues creator, and found him crying as he hugged his mothers, something that alarmed her more than she would have thought possible.</p>
<p>After a moment, the boy left his mothers and walked towards the huntress, stopping some three feet in front of her. After a second, he knelt before her, before drawing his knife and presenting it to her in both hands. As if that wasn’t enough, after a second more he spoke and simply said,</p>
<p>“Make it swift.”</p>
<p>Those three words left the hunters stunned. This boy, Percy, expected to be <em>executed</em> for helping them. That tearful hug; he had been saying goodbye. Suddenly Zoe felt sick to her stomach. He had been nothing but helpful to them, offering his hospitality, and had fought to defend them in their time of need. And he thought they would kill him for this. And he <em>did it anyway</em>.</p>
<p>Holding herself as tall as she could on her injured ankle, Zoe addressed the hunters.</p>
<p>“Who here thinks this boy should die for his deeds?”</p>
<p>Her voice was calm, but her face was steel. The message was clear, and though one or two hunters seemed displeased by this, even the most hardened man-haters among them bore a trace of guilt on their faces. This boy, Percy, had done nothing to harm them, had actively helped them even, and still expected to die of their hands, requesting nothing but a swift death. Zoe could see his mothers in the background watching impassively and, she knew, judging them.<br/><br/>“Rise boy. You have done no sin against us. You will not die today, not by our hands,” Zoe said, her voice calm and to Percy’s obvious surprise, gentle.</p>
<p>Coming to his feet, he looked at the Lieutenant with with such gratitude that Zoe’s stomach gave another twist. As he ran to his mothers with obvious tears in his eyes, Zoe couldn’t help but shake her head.</p>
<p>She was all for punishing abusive men, wicked men, men who wouldn’t take no for an answer, men who did not know their place. But as Percy bounced from where he had been kneeling into his mother’s waiting arms, she felt nothing but guilt. Which only increased after he turned from them a with a beaming smile that forcefully reminded her that he was only <em>eleven years old</em>, and said “Thank-you!” with tearful eyes.</p>
<p>He thanked her! For not killing him! Or maybe just for not letting the others kill him. Either way it left a sour taste in her mouth and a weight in her stomach, and looking at the faces of her companions, Zoe knew she was not alone in this.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, appearances must be maintained, so dark-eyed huntress turned to the boy before saying, “We will not be killing you, but thou didst act against our wishes, so there must be punishment,” which drew a serious nod from the boy. <br/>He has been trained well, she thought idly.</p>
<p>“I will leave proper judgement to Lady Artemis, but until such a time as Milady arrives to deliver it, we will have thou serve us. Thoushall cook for us. And should Milady not have arrived following this, thou shall be the Hunt’s sparring partner, dost thou understand?” Zoe asked firmly, and received yet another silent nod from the boy, who then immediately set off, presumably to acquire ingredients to cook. She was considering sending a huntress to accompany him when she caught the eye of Aspasia, who gave her a soft smile before shaking her head. The mother’s reaction bringing questions to her mind, Zoe made her way (slowly, her ankle still stung in spite of her using nectar and ambrosia) to where the three mothers were seated.</p>
<p>After seating herself, Zoe turned to the three spirits, who each met her with warm smiles, and asked,</p>
<p>“Why didst thou not intervene? Surely the boy’s distress would have been reason enough, even if thou didst know I would not condemn him.”</p>
<p>This drew chuckles from the three, leaving Zoe somewhat shocked at their response. It was Elena who elected to answer, the naiad rising from her seat to sit beside the huntress before speaking.</p>
<p>“The answer to you question is at once simple and complex. The simple part is that we knew it would not be needed. The complex part is that Percy would not have let us.” <br/>This statement only gave Zoe more questions, which must have been obvious as the mother soon continued.</p>
<p>“Percy is a simple boy, with a very strong will, and an equally strong sense of what is right, though I’m sure others would question it. The fact is, is that Percy felt he deserved to be punished as he wronged you for not complying with your wishes. As such, he would have accepted any sentence passed, and not let us intervene no matter what it was,” she said, then quickly raised a hand to stem the obvious question.</p>
<p>“And yes, he does know of punishments fitting the crime. But the thing is, to him it does. He acted intentionally against the will of a group of women he honours. To his mind, that deserves any punishment you deem fit to give him. Had we attempted to stop you carrying it out, he would have simply delivered it himself.”</p>
<p>This statement drew stares from all the hunters listening. He would really have gone that far?<br/>But the stern expressions on the mothers confirmed that yes, he would have.</p>
<p>The thought that the boy might have killed himself to serve the sentence had she delivered it sent a shiver up her spine, and Zoe was suddenly very glad that she had chosen to spare him. The world may have lost one of it’s only respectable males otherwise.</p>
<p>“That being said,” Zelia said with a grin, “if the boy does think he is innocent, and doesn’t deserve punishing, good luck getting him to go along with it.”</p>
<p>This statement made the mothers start laughing. They then proceeded to tell stories of times that other spirits had tried to pin the blame on him for pranks, one example leading him to run for the hills.</p>
<p><br/>“We didn’t see him for a week! When he came back covered in monster dust, forget punishing him for the prank, we had him doing chores for running out on us for that long! We were worried sick!”</p>
<p>This got curious looks from the listeners, before Aspasia explained, “He was 6 at the time,” which left them shocked, though a few of them had thoughtful looks. If he was doing that at 6 years-old, it certainly explained some of his skill today. One thing was for sure though; sparring later tonight was sure to be interesting.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Lots to unpack here, not least of which is little Percy's simply not knowing that helping someone in need, if against their wishes, probably isn't worth capital punishment. He lives in the wilds, damage and death are pretty much how things work.<br/>He has one or two more shocks to the system before that sinks in, which isn't really helped by him thinking he deserves it.<br/>He'll get there, but this is a small taster of his ideals running into everyone else's.<br/>We gonna have fun when he gets to camp :P<br/>And yes, I'm totally having it so that Zelia would teach him French Arias for them to sing as a duet. He knows nothing of the supposed sophistication around the arts, he just thinks they're pretty song to sing with him Moms.<br/>It makes me happy :D<br/>Anyway, hope you enjoyed!<br/>Comments are always welcome, as are ideas, but do remember that in the end it is my story and straight up telling me to do something is likely to just get a "No &lt;3"<br/>If you wanna see something, by all means, feel free to write it yourself :)<br/>(Sorry to the more polite among you. I was unprepared for how entitled some of this fandom could be. Most of y'all are great)<br/>Take care! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 5: Solstice Prayers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>(More reshuffling)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 5: Solstice Prayers</b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Time passed quickly with the Hunt in good spirits, enjoying the hospitality of Percy’s mothers as they regaled the girls with tales of his younger years. Apasia was just telling them of when they had first discovered Percy working on the shrines when the smell of roasting meat wafted through the camp. The smell got stronger when Percy, dragged a small wooden sled into the main section by a length of rope. Atop the sled was a finely roasted venison haunch, with a number of clay fire roast vegetables surrounding it. The scent of honey, rosemary and venison together with the smokey scent of the vegetables soon had the hunters drooling, their stomachs reminding them that they had in fact had a long march followed by a battle today. The group could barely wait for Percy to start serving portions onto carved wooden platters before they started wolfing down the meal, groans of pleasure at the delicious food filling the air. Zoe watched as Percy got a serving for himself before sitting beside his mothers, each of them giving him a short hug and kiss, beaming with pride at their boy.<br/>
The dark-eyed huntress felt that some of their pride was warranted, as the venison at least was some of the best she had ever tasted. This together with the fact that he had clearly hunted and dressed the beast himself, before preparing and cooking it over a campfire made him to be quite the little chef, she pondered with a thoughtful expression.</p>
<p>A true shame he was a boy, or the hunt would take him in an instant, she thought with a sigh, before having another mouthful of the scrumptious meal.</p>
<p>To help pass the time before they would be fit for sparring, Zoe called on Percy.<br/>
<br/>
“Boy, come here,” she commanded, causing him to appear by her side with startling speed.</p>
<p>“We have sometime to pass for our food to settle. Entertain us while we wait,” she said, which brought smiles to the mother’s faces. Zelia zipped off, drawing looks from the Hunt, before returning with a flute in one hand, and passing what looked to be some variant of a violin to Elena.<br/>
Aspasia walked up beside her son, who simply smile up at his mother, before he started singing, two of his mothers accompanying them while Aspasia soon joined him in singing. The hunt only watched in awe as their singing flooded the woods, the beautiful harmony evoking a sense of wonder from the group. Zoe could only listen in pleasant shock as the boy and his three mothers gave a rendition of Delibes’ Duo de Fluer worthy of any of the grand concert halls the hunt had visited (or been forced by Apollo to visit) over the years.</p>
<p><br/>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZL5AxmK_A&amp;ab_channel=WarnerClassics">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZL5AxmK_A&amp;ab_channel=WarnerClassics</a>
</p>
<p>Whatever she had been expecting from the boy, this wasn’t it.</p>
<p>While still clearly lacking in refinement, the boy’s voice held a sweetness to it, made all the more so by his obvious joy at singing with his mothers. The resulting music was therefore much more enjoyable than so many stuffy performances for its sincerity and depth of emotion, and Zoe found herself smiling, sharing in the small family’s happiness as she listened. This sentiment was apparently also held by the rest of the hunt as when they finished it was met by wild applause from the group leaving the mothers’ grinning. Percy for his part was a blushing mess from the attention, which shortly turned into shock as he saw something behind the group before he knelt and all but face-planted himself as he threw himself down. Turning to see what had brought this reaction, the group found a smiling Artemis in her 8 year old form, who had been clapping with them at the performance.</p>
<p>“Welcome my Lady,” Zoe greeted the goddess with a smile, who returned it saying, “Thank you Zoe.” Giving a smiling wink to the nature spirits, Artemis stilled her features before addressing the kneeling child.<br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>“Rise, boy,” the goddess said coldly.</p>
<p><br/>
“I must say, when I came down to see how the Hunt faired after their battle, I was not expecting a performance. Your mothers have taught you well boy, they should be proud.” Her tone was calculating and cool and, but for the wink, the mothers would be worried. As it was, they gave her beaming smiles before Elena answered for them calmly saying,</p>
<p><br/>
“You are most gracious, my lady. Thank you,” her tone giving away nothing.</p>
<p>“As for you boy,” the goddess began addressing the now obviously tense figure on the ground.<br/>
<br/>
This was it, Percy knew. Zoe as the beta (Loo-ten-nant was still a silly word) didn’t want to pass judgement, but now Lady Artemis was here, the alpha. A goddess known for her punishment of men. He found himself mouthing a prayer, not for mercy, no, that was unlikely, but at least that her punishment would be swift. Maybe she would just turn him into a jackelope? That didn’t seem too bad. He could at least live with his mothers still.</p>
<p>Artemis for her part, was suddenly very aware that he wasn’t exactly listening to her, and would have grown annoyed but for her horrified realisation that he was praying to her <em>for a swift death </em>with a face that was growing progressively paler.<br/>
Suddenly the goddess felt embarrassed as she recalled what had happened only earlier that day, having observed Zoe’s interactions with him and his mothers from her throne during the council meeting. He thought he deserved punishment for going against their wishes. The auburn haired goddess stifled a sigh of frustration. Punishing those that deserved it, that was something she was familiar with. Convincing someone they didn’t deserve punishment on the other hand, was somewhat outside of her expertise. Figuring that joking about such things was doing more harm than good, the goddess approached the boy and spoke softly.</p>
<p>“Percy, son of Elena, Zelia and Aspasia,” she began, her mode of address capturing his attention.<br/>
“You have done my Hunt a service today, and for that I am grateful. While you acted in their protection against their wishes, in truth your actions undoubtedly saved lives today. You will not be punished for this,” she finished with a smile.</p>
<p><br/>
For his part, Percy first appeared shocked, before his face crumpled and he let out a tearful “Thank-you” before running into the waiting arms of his mothers, who smothered him with hugs and kisses.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Now, I believe there is something you still have to do today, Percy,” Artemis said smiling, which drew a smile from the boy in reply as he nodded vigorously.</p>
<p>He extracted himself from his mothers’ arms and left the group in flash of speed, before returning an easy jog dragging yet another of those wooden sleds the boy clearly used to carry things too awkward for his small frame. This time, it held a series of clay bricks, clearly still hot from the way they marked the wood they were on and the thick cloth Percy must have used to handle them. Beside the bricks on the sled was a chest that was instantly familiar to some of the group there, albeit far simpler, with its more adorned likeness being used to house the statues he had created. Most of the hunt understood what was happening now, with those unfamiliar being filled in as they watched: Percy was making his Solstice offerings.</p>
<p>He stood first before Hestia’s shrine, as he always did, before bowing deeply to it and lighting a fire in the brazier that had clearly been prepared earlier. Percy then broke open two of the six clay bricks, causing those present to take a delicious breath of the smell released from inside. The clay had been housing and slowly cooking large poultry to perfection, which Percy had just uncovered.</p>
<p>Percy bowed again before speaking, this time in prayer. They had come a long way from the simple ones he had first given, though were no less sincere, Artemis noted.</p>
<p>“Lady Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, Fire and Family. I thank you this Winter Solstice for so many things, but mostly for my family. They mean everything to me, and I can never thank you enough. May your fires burn bright with hope and love, and may your warmth guide you and your siblings into a better future.”<br/>
<br/>
As the group listened, Artemis was struck by the conviction in his words. The pure, simple, powerful gratitude they rang with, and the sincerity of his final blessing.<br/>
<br/>
Digging out the slow cooked meat with a pair of clean cloths, he held it up to the statue before saying,</p>
<p><br/>
“I hope you accept my offering. I made it for you! One of them is a traditional honey rosemary stuffing, which the other is a more experimental garlic and thyme. I hope you like it!”</p>
<p>He finished with a wide smile, his happy grin as he burnt the food reminding the watchers that what ever else he may be that yes, he was still a child, and it really shone through at times like this.</p>
<p>“I also made you another statue! This one is of a donkey, which I’m told is one of your sacred animals. They seem nice, so I guess I can see why you like them. My Maman brought me a picture cause I had never seen one, but I hope I got it right!”<br/>
<br/>
Artemis watched him offer this one in amusement, not alone in having a quiet chuckle at his words. It was for the best that he didn’t know the story of how a donkey had helped save Hestia from being raped, as who knows how he may have reacted? Better to preserve his innocence on the matter a little longer, Artemis figured.</p>
<p>Moving on to Artemis’ statue, the boy looked a little awkward for a moment, his eyes flickering between the goddess herself and the statue, before the goddess gave a small nod, silently telling the boy to do it as usual.</p>
<p>With a shrug, the boy began his offerings by bowing, lighting the fire, and following this with a prayer.</p>
<p><br/>
“Lady Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, the Moon, Childbirth and Virginity. I thank you this Winter Solstice for the Wilds as your domain, and for the work of you and your Hunt. The wild is my home and I love it. You and your hunters’ work is important, and many owe their lives to you, so for this I thank you also. May your light guide you true, your arrows fly swift, and your hunts be successful.” He finished with a bright smile, this time directed at the goddess in question, who huffed a short laugh in response.</p>
<p>Breaking open two of the clay bricks, Percy presented the food to be offered to her in turn, hesitating before burning it, before another nod from the goddess herself had him shrug again and toss it into the second brazier.</p>
<p>He then pulled out, the statue he had made, this one another deer, a stag, rearing on it’s hind legs. After a brief hesitation, Percy made his way over to the goddess. With a blushing face he bowed, and presented the statue to Artemis, who took it with a small smile and a nod.<br/>
On closer inspection, the statue was of a <em>happy</em> deer, and she could all but see it prancing, the joy practically rolling off the piece. With a small chuckle, the goddess flashed the piece into her own wooden chest, pleased with the addition to her collection. Percy gave the goddess a beaming smile at her acceptance, before moving to Hera’s shrine for her offering.</p>
<p>“Lady Hera, Goddess of Family, Women and Marriage. I thank you this Winter Solstice for my family. I have come to understand in my travels that having a loving family is a privilege, and those who do have it often take it for granted. I don’t want to be one of those who do, as I truly love them. I understand from the stories that your own family has many struggles. I want you to know that I honour you not in spite of them, but because of them. Those carrying the heaviest of burdens to success are those most worthy of praise, and if the stories are to be believed, you are most worthy indeed. May the warmth of home bring you happiness, and may your feelings be clear that your hearts are known.”</p>
<p>This prayer, like the others, rang with sincerity, genuine gratitude and well wishing. Unlike the others however, this spoke truths of the gods and their relationships, laid bare by a smiling child who’s eyes simply ignored the cloud of politics, rivalries, grudges and abuses of trust that made up the tragedies of the Olympian family. Artemis couldn’t help but shudder at how easily those troubles of thousands of years were stripped away under his words, leaving the truth of their dysfunctional family spread out, raw and bleeding in plain view. She wondered if this was what his offerings to Hera were always like. The boy speaking the ugly truth to the Goddess of Family, and then honouring her for her strength in trying to lead it. By comparison, his prayer to her was positively benign, if no less sincere for it.</p>
<p>Percy’s offering to Hera was of similar fare for the food, and the accompanying statue was a delicately carved peacock, it’s tail feathers spread and each pinion intricately detailed.</p>
<p>Following his offerings, Percy returned to sitting with his mothers, leaving the Hunt and it’s goddess staring at the boy who had spoken so powerfully only moments before. It was Atlanta who asked one of the many questions that were heavy in the air, curiosity heavy in her voice as she spoke.<br/>
<br/>
“Boy, why did you speak so much when praying yet have said less than twenty words to the rest of us?”</p>
<p>In answer to this, Percy thought for a moment, before finally saying,</p>
<p>“It’s different. Words matter. You are here. They are not.”</p>
<p>This statement answered the question well enough, if only to give rise to another. It was also the most words they had heard from the boy yet, getting faintly impressed looks from his mothers in turn.</p>
<p>“And why do you think words matter, boy?” Artemis asked. Of all the things she had expected today, she could safely say that such a philosophical discussion with an 11 year-old hadn’t been on the list.</p>
<p>Turning to the goddess, Percy answered, “Words lie. Can be wrong. No words, less lies. Less mess,” he said patiently.<br/>
<br/>
Artemis found herself nodding at his succinct answer. He wasn’t wrong. She had seen Hermes, Aphrodite, and especially her brother dance rings around the truth with their words, yet for all of that, they needed to really want a lie to succeed to put the effort into controlling their body to hide from the truth. As Percy put it, “No words, less lies.” Not no lies, she noted. He had clearly had people lying around him before, and when she voiced such, got a laugh out of the others, before Zoe explained that his mothers’ had been telling stories of the lies the other spirits told to try and get the boy in trouble. Percy, for his part, simply scowled at the memory, causing his mothers to chuckle and grab him to cuddle.</p>
<p>“Now boy, I believe thou agreed to spar with some of us, correct?” Zoe asked.</p>
<p>Percy responded immediately, jumping to his feet with a dazzling smile and indicating to follow him, before speeding off in the direction of the range. The group followed him, a few of them chuckling at his enthusiasm, and soon found him waiting for them there, doing a few stretches and bouncing on his toes in anticipation.</p>
<p>Zoe thought for a moment, before deciding that one of the less experienced huntresses should spar with him first so the rest of them could get a gauge on him skill. It would be good experience for them if they lost, and if they won, humbling a male was never a bad thing, she thought with a smirk.</p>
<p>Artemis for her part was content to observe. She had seen some of the boy’s skill, and knew fighting such an unorthodox opponent would be good experience for whoever he fought, win or lose.</p>
<p>“Yuki, why don’t you have the first round?” Zoe said, calling forth the Japanese girl. While being a clear-sighted mortal and only having been with the hunt for two years now, the girl had proven talented with hunting knives. Not yet at the level of the older girls, she might prove a suitable opponent for the forest boy.</p>
<p>Yuki gave a small, fierce smile as she walked into the middle of the range where Percy was waiting.<br/>
<br/>
Aspasia addressed the pair, “Right, standard rules, first proven kill shot wins. No maiming, no killing, anything else goes. Percy, no spellsongs for the first round, or until you are told you can use them. If anyone does want to fight him while he uses them, tell me or your Lieutenant first, alright?”</p>
<p>This got grumbles from the girls in the audience, but the most senior of them all nodded firmly. They had felt what those things could do, and none of them where confident they could fight through them, especially not with the grinning boy who sang them as the opponent.<br/>
<br/>
The pair fighting got into their ready stances, Yuki adopting a more traditional knife stance, while Percy stood relaxed and loose, on the balls of his feet with a glint in his eye.<br/>
<br/>
Apasia stood to one side and called out, “Ready? Begin!”<br/>
<br/>
And in what felt like a split second later it was over, leaving most of the watchers staring, trying to figure out what had happened to have the boy behind Yuki, knife to her throat at his mercy.</p>
<p>The most experienced of them, on the other hand, were impressed and raised Percy’s threat level several notches in their estimation.</p>
<p>Hearing several mutters of “What just happened?” from the younger girls, Artemis suggested,<br/>
“Percy, why don’t you and Yuki show them what you just did?”<br/>
<br/>
Percy just nodded smiling, moving back a step, letting the huntress get up. Looking around to see he had their attention, he spoke.<br/>
<br/>
“At begin,” then moved forward, showing where he had gone, dashing to one side of his opponent.<br/>
<br/>
“Goddess eyes, can see,” he said, with a nod to the Mistress of the Wilds. The blessing of Lady Artemis, Yuki realised. He knew I would see his movement due to the blessing.<br/>
<br/>
Percy then motioned for the girl to turn to face him. Yuki felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she did so, realising what had happened.<br/>
<br/>
“Good eyes, fast react. Don’t think, just act,” he said, with his high, unbroken voice somehow more damning as he demonstrate how, with his opponent turning to face him, he had dashed back, using her reaction to turn against her to take her back far more easily, then showing how he had put his foot on one knee to make her leg fold and put her at his mercy, with his blade at her neck and as good as dead.</p>
<p>Smiling still, Percy stepped back into his starting position, and many of those present felt a small chill. This smiling 11 year-old had used the blessing of the goddess against his opponent to out think her and gone strait for the kill shot with no hesitation. His mothers all nodded proudly at this display, and those watching began to see just how abnormal this boy was.</p>
<p>Zoe cleared her throat before speaking again, “Phoebe, would you care to challenge the boy?” The huntress in question gave her a small smirk as she stepped up, her weapon of choice, a single bladed war-axe, held at the ready as she looked at him with deadly focus. She would not be underestimating him.</p>
<p>Percy just looked excited to fight again, and with the word go, dashed forward to meet the huntress, stopping after a meter to watch her. Baiting her, Phoebe realised, feeling herself growl. She would not be easy meat.</p>
<p>The pair stood as if frozen, staring each other down, before the tension was broken once more, this time by Phoebe letting out a war-cry as she dashed forward, and swung her axe in a devastating sweep, that met only air as the boy danced on a diagonal out of the axe’s arch. He then drew close again, one flickering out to pommel strike one of her hands as the other thrust towards her neck.<br/>
Phoebe blocked the thrust with the flat of her blade, the bashed hand almost fumbling from the pain of the aimed strike. Percy followed this with a series of strikes, circling her and attacking her hands, not letting the daughter of Ares leverage her superior strength by attacking her grip.</p>
<p>Growing furious at his tactics, the huntress released one hand of her axe and back-handed him with it as he moved forward, stunning the boy. Percy was forced onto the defensive as his choke on her range was broken, now having to dodge a series of axe blows, any one of which could end him. As the huntress raised her axe for an overhead blow, Percy dashed forward, catching the axe haft at the top of the its arch in his crossed blades, before doing something that shocked the Hunt.<br/>
Percy mounted the huntress, pushing off her thigh with one foot to swing behind her back with one arm around her neck as a pivot, throwing her balance and allowing him to throw one leg around her shoulder and land on her back as she was forced to fall forwards by the sudden weight. One blade held to the back of her head and the match was over.</p>
<p>The spectators response to Percy’s methods were varied. Some of the younger hunter’s were at turns annoyed by he touched her body, while others were awed by how he had taken down the Hunt’s best heavy fighter. His mothers were pleased with his tactics, though Zelia took a moment to shake her head and mutter about sloppy form. The most senior of the Hunters and Artemis however couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of the boy using Phoebe as a jungle gym, even as they realised that his unorthodox tactics might be perfectly suited to some of their more agile fighters.</p>
<p>Percy for his part was just happy that he had new people to spar with, and only smiled at the group, even offering a hand to the downed Phoebe, who refused it with a short scowl. She just knew she’d never hear the end of this.</p>
<p>“You have some skill after all, young man,” Artemis noted from where she had been watching on the die line, causing Percy to blush furiously as he bowed in thanks, earning a chuckle from his mothers.</p>
<p>“Now, I would have you follow me for a moment. Elena, Aspasia, Zelia, if you would join me?” The goddess asked, getting nods from the three spirits and their son.<br/>
<br/>
After a short walk, the goddess led the small family some distance away, stopping at Elena’s pond, where she finally stopped to address them.</p>
<p>“As you may have gathered, young Percy has caught the attention of we three goddesses with his devotion. When I first arrived here three years ago, I supposed to retrieve him so that we three might meet him,” Artemis began, getting understanding nods from the mothers. For his part, Percy face remained impassive, yet he was rapidly going pale as he listened.</p>
<p>He must think he has angered us, the goddess thought tiredly. Not that she could blame him. The Olympians are not made out to be the most reasonable of folk in stories, and without ever meeting them, fear of reprisal was a valid response. He honoured them, praised them. Nigh on adored them, to listen to him and observe his devotions. Yet he was still terrified of them, she thought, stifling a sigh.<br/>
<br/>
“Percy,” she said firmly, catching his eyes to made sure she had his attention. “You are not in trouble. We merely wished to meet you, and get to know you. You are not going to be punished.”<br/>
<br/>
While the mothers clearly breathed a sigh of relief, Artemis could see the moment when what she had said was understood, his legs folding under him as the tension left him.<br/>
At least there was no shortage of respect there, the auburn haired goddess thought. Though for him to fear them to that extent, she found it deeply troubled her. That this boy who praised her, sent her devotions and offerings, still feared for his life in her presence, left a foul taste on her tongue.</p>
<p>“While we understood your desire to remain hidden, we three nonetheless still desire to meet with you. With your permission, I will take you to meet with the three of us,” Artemis finished, going back to observing the group.</p>
<p>The mothers seemed largely happy with the idea, pleased that their son had caught the positive attention of three goddesses, two of whom are were far more known for their colder disposition.</p>
<p>Percy, though having regained his colour from where he knelt on the ground, appeared to be thinking about the idea, his brow furrowed in thought before he finally spoke.</p>
<p>“When?” He asked.</p>
<p>Smiling at his response, Artemis answered, “Today, soon if possible,” causing the boy to nod thoughtfully.</p>
<p>After a minute longer, Percy rose to his feet. Quickly going over to his mothers to give them each a hug and causing them to chuckle at him, before turning to the goddess and saying simply,<br/>
<br/>
“OK.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes, Hestia's Temple on Olympus is absolutely a stylized, enlarged, Hobbit house.<br/>It seemed like a cool idea and I like it. Fight me.</p>
<p>I'm almost out of pre-written stuff, so posting from here is gona be as I finish it ok? Sorry if it causes delays, but that's the breaks I'm afraid. Been having some hella writer's block, so it's gonna be slow, but we'll get there :)<br/>Thanks for the support y'all! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 6: Meeting Your Gods Changes You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>(Reposting due to missing a whole chapter why am I like this)<br/>Percy meets his Goddesses for the first time.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 6: Meeting Your Gods Changes You</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Percy had known that a meeting was a possibility ever since he had first heard that Lady Artemis had come to his home with her hunters. Even that had surprised him in truth. He had known the goddesses he prayed to had accepted his offerings. Not a whole lot had changed for him since he started them in truth. Sometimes he might get a little luckier when hunting maybe, or his campfire might seem especially comfortable, but nothing extreme. No gifts, blessings, or anything tangible. Which was, when he thought about it, kind of the point, wasn’t it?</p><p> </p><p>He had started his prayers and offerings in the full expectation that he would receive nothing in return. So imagine his shock when his mothers’ Iris Message him to tell him that Artemis had come to his home seeking him out and <em>had liked his work?</em></p><p> </p><p>The ones he worshipped liking his work had been completely outside his expectations.</p><p>Then again, so was actually worshipping them.<br/><br/></p><p>It hadn’t started out as worship, not really. He had liked the sound of them, and decided to thank them. They were, after all, the ones in charge of the things that made his life good. Family, food, home, and the wild. Why wouldn’t he be thankful for those? It had been around the time he had finished the first statue that he realised that he worshipped them, which hadn’t changed a whole lot really.</p><p><em><br/></em>Now, he had done what research he could on the goddesses he worshipped, seeking out stories of them and their deeds from every place he had travelled, but that was more out of curiosity than anything. That had been difficult, and his diss-lex-sia (a funny word for a thing that caused him such problems) had caused him many issues, but he had persevered and been rewarded. That one big building with lots of books in particular had been very helpful as they had books in Greek, which he could read! Lots of nonsense in them, but the stories were good. Though the people that guarded them seemed upset when he ran away with some of them.</p><p> </p><p>With a hoard that size they really should guard it better, he reflected.<br/><br/></p><p>Anyways, all the stories he had read and heard said that all the Gods and Goddesses were powerful and tended to be mean to mortals. For some really strange stuff to, like weaving, or looking at someone naked. That last one in particular had confused him. How else were you going to get clean?</p><p><br/>So to hear that the ones he prayed to wanted to see him was more than a little alarming. Lady Hestia he could almost understand. She seemed really nice, and he was looking forward to meeting her. But Lady Artemis and Lady Hera? Lady Hera was well known to hate demigods with a passion, which he had been told many times he was. That sometimes it was fish doing the telling reinforced this somewhat.</p><p> </p><p>Though.... Lady Artemis had been pretty nice, all things considered. He had acted directly against her wishes, and she hadn’t killed him, hadn’t even cursed him or hurt him! Even more surprisingly, she hadn’t even had her hunters do anything!<br/><br/>He watched the back of the Goddess of the Hunt as she led him a little ways away from the rest of the group. If Lady Artemis, a known hater of males (which he was told he was) didn’t hurt him after he did something she didn’t like, maybe Lady Hera wouldn’t hurt him either?</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t want to get his hopes up. After all, he had ran away when they wanted to meet him, and they can’t have liked that. Maybe the offerings made them not mad? Percy knew that when you wanted to get honey you had to leave something nice for the bees. That or break the hive, but something told him that wasn’t really an option with Goddesses. Following Lady Artemis (the Lady part was important he was told) to the small clearing where she waited, Percy mentally shrugged.</p><p> </p><p>It wasn’t like he could run now anyway.</p><p> </p><p>He guessed he would find out if he was in trouble shortly.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>~~~</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Artemis, for her part, was curious as to Percy’s reaction. He seemed very resigned to the whole thing, like someone getting exactly what they had bought in a package. <em>Or someone walking to the guillotine, </em>she thought wryly.</p><p> </p><p>Having seen how the boy had reacted to her presence, and to Zoe earlier in the day, she knew there was every chance he did, in fact, think he was walking to his death, and had relayed this to her step-mother and Aunt. If they wanted to get to know the boy, it would be far better that he didn’t think he was on the edge of a cliff at all times. Which, she supposed, started with her, the only one of them he had seen, she thought with a grimace.</p><p> </p><p>It made sense, really. Lady Artemis the Huntress, the Chaste, infamous hater of males. Which he was, though this seemed to be something that the boy, Percy, had more been told, rather than actually acted upon or embraced in any fashion. If they wanted him to open up, if <em>she</em> wanted him to open up, then she supposed she should be nice to the boy. After all, he was young yet, and with their</p><p>influence would grow into a worthy male in time, though his mothers had done a fine job so far.</p><p> </p><p>And she found she did want him to open up, if for no other reason than to see what made him tick, what made him worship the three of them with such devotion when they had, rather pointedly, done nothing to encourage this.</p><p> </p><p>Still, <em>if you want a job done, better to do it yourself, and no time to start like the present</em>, she reflected.</p><p> </p><p>“Come, Percy. Let us go to meet my fellow goddesses,” she said with a gentle smile she normally reserved for her huntresses, before holding out a hand for him to take.</p><p> </p><p>The boy for his part, tilted his head in obvious confusion at her change of tone, causing her to curse internally. He was incredibly perceptive, they had known this! Of course he would pick up a change in attitude. Whatever he saw, it didn’t seem to worry him much however, and he took her hand with only a moment of hesitation, allowing the goddess to flash the both of them to Olympus. <em><br/></em></p><p>They arrived on Olympus outside of her Aunt Hestia’s palace, their usual meeting place, in a flash of silver light and the goddess took the time to watch Percy seeing Olympus for the first time. The home of the gods was spectacular of course, that was kind of the point, but after a few millennia it’s splendour was dulled in her eyes somewhat, and it was always amusing to see a mortals reaction to it.</p><p> </p><p>Artemis soon found herself having to stifle a giggle. Percy, exposed to the glorious sight of Olympus, was acting not unlike a puppy eager to be let off his leash. The boy was practically vibrating on the spot, his hands twitching and head constantly on the swivel, sea-green eyes darting to every new sight. She could see nose twitching, fighting to take in the scents of the city of the Gods with his limited senses. Artemis could see that his excitement would soon turn to agitation however, and led him by the hand she still held towards her Aunt’s palace.</p><p> </p><p>The home of Hestia was not unlike the goddess herself, smaller and subdued, but making up for any comparative lack in splendour by appearing almost infinitely more comfortable than that of her fellow gods. The palace itself was a deep maroon, far darker than standard brickwork and appeared to be hewn all of one great stone with brighter red ceramic tiles for roofing, and a lush, healthy garden to either side of the front door, obviously tended with great care by either Hestia herself or one of her sisters.</p><p>In truth if anything stood out about the building it was the front door itself. Painted a pleasant warm yellow, it was large and completely circular, something the goddess had confessed to Artemis one pleasant evening, was inspired by a certain fantasy author and the movies it produced. Why one would want a circular door, Artemis had no idea, as it gave the impression that the building was built into the side of a hill somehow, but to hear Hestia talk that was the desired impression and it was fairly harmless as eccentricities went. After all, it was nothing garish like her brother’s golden monstrosity, or unpleasant to bystanders, like the fumes given off from Hephaestus’s palace. No, the effect was actually rather pleasant, and had started to grow on the Artemis after a few visits, something she found herself considering once again as she knocked on the door in question requesting entry.</p><p> </p><p>Following the short knock, the door had inwards silently, welcoming the pair into the temple, though in truth it was far more of a house than not. Sure, it had braziers every handful of steps lining the walls and keeping its halls pleasantly warm, yet how many temples had coat and hat racks just inside the door? And for all the tall stone walls, the floor was pleasantly carpeted, which was something that Artemis had paid little head to in the past but was suddenly very aware of as the small boy paused on the obvious welcome mat to remove his dirty leather boots. When the goddess raised an eyebrow at him in question, he had simply gestured to the immaculate floors and the dirty sole of his foot, which had gotten a brief smile out of her in spite of herself. He had taken a moment to put his shoes on a shoe rack that had conveniently appeared, before following after her in his bare feet, a small smile telling of his enjoyment of the soft carpet on his calloused soles.</p><p> </p><p>That was another thing she appreciated in the boy, Artemis couldn’t help but think as she led him through the temple/house. They had just engaged in a full conversation, subtleties and all, without a word passing between them. The boy’s choice to be sparing with words was something she found herself approving of, having grown frequently frustrated with the arguing of her fellow gods, let alone the silver tongued, slippery nature of her brother and step-siblings. It added another number to her growing list of things she liked about him, a list which she would never have suspected herself to figuratively draw up in the first place. Which was all the more reason to get to know him, she mused, finally leading the pair into Hestia’s lounge.<br/><br/>In any other temple, this might have been the grand hall of worship, fitted with statues of the god in question and tapestries of their deeds, together with the tools needed for worship, candles, braziers and altars. But such trappings were of little use to the Goddess of the Hearth and Home, and while the temple still had the means for worship, that took place in smaller, private, sitting rooms. This grandest of rooms was instead dedicated to all things that made a house a home. Fitted with a TV, a large scale chef’s kitchen, and an array of book shelves, the room was also arrayed in a multitude of comfortable chairs and sofa’s all arranged around a large central hearth. The central fire’s heat flooded the room with a comfortable warmth, and Artemis couldn’t help the smile that formed on her face as the warmth of her Aunty’s home welcomed them. She loved Hestia’s home, and she wasn’t afraid to admit it.</p><p> </p><p>The welcome of the fire was soon joined by that of it’s owner. “Artemis, good to see you dear one!”<br/>Said Hestia from where she was seated beside the fire, her favoured form of a 9 year-old girl all but bouncing in her seat, happiness beaming from her features.</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p> </p><p>Percy was still somewhat in shock as the goddess of the hunt led him through the house, though he nonetheless found himself enjoying the experience. The warm, soft floor, the pleasant colours of the halls. It all made him feel.... welcome. Welcome in a way that invited him to stay, welcome in a way that reminded him of the pond of his Mom, or Agathi and Petros’ cave. For all that everything about the place invited him to relax however, Percy still felt a current of anxiety underlying everything. These were goddesses after all. If he did anything, anything at all that annoyed them, there was no telling the consequences. He was glad he had had a chance to say goodbye, and tell his mother’s he loved them. Some things needed to be said, and he would far rather have had the chance to say it than not.</p><p> </p><p>All too soon the small goddess of the hunt (her preferred form of a girl about his age still surprising him) led Percy into a far larger room where the goddess was greeted warmly by another little girl who Percy could only assume to be Lady Hestia by the stories he had heard. Seated beside the little girl was a woman, Lady Hera he assumed. The features matched those of his statues, and he had been told that they had been changed by the goddesses themselves. He had no reason not to believe it after all. They still shared many of the qualities of his own work, yet the faces on his statues were not those that he carved. For Lady Hera, those high cheekbones and sharp jaw line, soft lips drawn into a grim smile. For Lady Hestia, a softer smile, and gentle eyes, only they were a lot younger on the goddess herself in this form. And just like that Percy’s focus bore down on the pair, everything else becoming threat assessment, secondary to the threats themselves.</p><p>For the three goddesses, however pleasantly they presented themselves, were threats. Even if he prayed to them, worshipped them, and now stood in their presence to receive their judgement, they were threats. The aura around them assured him of that if nothing else. They exuded power, and no kindly face could conceal that. Like a blanket thrown over a lion, they bent the fabric by their sheer presence, and should the blanket ever be pulled back he would find himself in immediate danger.</p><p> </p><p>Something of a moot point given his expectations of this meeting, but worth stating regardless.</p><p> </p><p>With a deep, shuddering breath, Percy made his way to the centre of the three goddesses and knelt down beside the fire, and waited.<br/><br/></p><p>The goddesses around him seemed to have a silent conversation with each other, and flickers of emotion played upon their features. Confusion, sadness, understanding. This went on for a time before at last they appeared to reach a conclusion and Lady Hestia turned to him, a look of gentle understanding in her eyes and a kind smile on her face.</p><p> </p><p>“Percy, son of Aspasia, Elena and Zelia, we mean you no harm. We only wish to get to know you,” she said softly and oh so warmly.</p><p> </p><p>His confusion must have shown on his face as Lady Hera and Lady Artemis nodded, the later confidently with a small smile, while Lady Hera did so with a brittle looking smile on her face, making her look.... human. Vulnerable.</p><p> </p><p>They mean it, he realised. They just want to talk.</p><p> </p><p>As his mind reeled in the shock of this revelation, he felt something land on his hand. Raising it to look, he saw it was water. And why were his eyes blurry? Lifting his hand to his cheek he found he was crying. When had that happened? He could feel the tension leaving his body, and all he could think as the blackness closed in was ‘Its real. I’m safe.’<br/>And he knew it to be true.</p><p> </p><p>~~~</p><p> </p><p>Hera had been waiting patiently at her sister Hestia’s home. It was humble, bordering on rustic and perfectly suited the Goddess of the Hearth. It was also infinitely more of a home than her own home, shared as it was with her unfaithful husband. Such lines of thought were painful to dwell on, and why she otherwise avoided Hestia’s home, for all that she enjoyed her company. The pain of her marriage made places of warmth and kindness, true homes, something she avoided as she felt they were forever out of her reach. Yet here she found herself once more, as she had increasingly often in these last few years. The three of them, herself, Hestia and her step-daughter, had decided on this as their meeting place to discuss the young demigod who had started worshipping them several years ago. Percy, a strong but oh-so-very-young boy, who had asked nothing of them but simply gave them thanks.</p><p> </p><p>The first time he prayed to her had been shocking enough, almost enough to break her composure during a council meeting, yet Hera only found herself more shocked over time. She could remember clearly the first time he had sent a carving. She had just stormed out of the house she shared with Zeus following yet another argument and had been cooling off in one of Olympus’ many gardens when the prayer had reached her. An offering of some sort of fire cooked honey cake and a small statue of a cow, carved with care by unskilled hands. And once more, the boy had asked for nothing and simply thanked her. The shock of it alone had been enough to cool her anger.</p><p>From where she was seated in Hestia’s lounge Hera could see where her sister kept her own collection of the statues, lining a wall on small shelves clearly made to purpose. Hera’s own collection were kept in the hewn chest the boy had sent a few years back, one she stored in a private sitting room in her house that she pulled out when she received a new one <strike>or </strike><strike>she</strike><strike> needed cheering up.</strike></p><p> </p><p>Privately the brown-eyed Queen of the gods could admit to being curious to meet the boy even back then, something that had increased substantially after Artemis had shown them the boy’s shrines two years ago. She could recall that day with stark clarity. How the boy, Percy, had managed to capture so much of what made Hera herself in a statue and yet get the face wrong because he had <em>never met her, </em>was something she still didn’t truly understand.</p><p> </p><p>A few hours ago, during the Solstice meeting, Artemis told Hestia and herself that her hunter’s had been aided by the boy before they took refuge in his home, and they had arranged that she would retrieve him so they could meet with him at last. And so, here she waited with her sister in their home, doing her best to pretend patience when her frenzied thoughts itched under her skin. What if he didn’t like her, he regretted praying to her? Worse scorned her, feared her? Treated her like every other demigod? Had she been more inclined to introspection in the moment she may have asked herself why these questions mattered; he was a young mortal and of no lasting consequence. Yet she carried a hope that he might like her, and pray to her still. To be honoured not as the wife of her adulterous letch of a husband but a goddess in her own right was something she found herself treasuring more with each passing prayer.</p><p>For all that she was immortal those minutes before Artemis arrived with their guest stretched with the weight of hundreds of years, but in time her patience was rewarded. Out of the corner of her eye Hera noted her sister perk up with a smile, and a thrum of excitement passed through her. They had arrived.</p><p> </p><p>As they entered the room Hera found her eyes trained to the boy that followed the goddess of the hunt. He was....small, which wasn’t surprising per se, yet still drew some measure of shock from her, as every story told of the boy somehow made him seem larger than life. He was small, yes, but not for lack of effort on his part. She could see the wirey definition of his muscles, how he moved with the grace of the nature spirits he was raised by. Indeed, everything about him spoke of the wilds, from his rough, woven clothing and wolf hide vest, to the way his head darted too and fro, eyes wide and nostrils flared, starting at a crackle of the fire as he watched for new threats.<br/>And that was what truely struck Hera in that moment. If Percy was a wild animal and to be read as one, then he was, above all, a <em>threatened </em>one.<br/><br/>As if to confirm the thought, Artemis spoke to their minds, telling of how the boy had helped her hunters and then seemed to think he deserved to be punished for going against their wishes, going so far as to surrender himself and ask for a swift death. The thought pained her far more than it should have. The implication was obvious. If he thought he was to be executed for helping the Hunt in it’s time of need, what must he think by coming here to meet goddesses he had denied?<br/>No sooner had this thought occurred then the boy knelt at their feet, head tilted to one side. <em>To b</em><em>are</em><em> his throat to them,</em> she realised. She felt a deep pang of sadness at the thought, a blade of guilt and sorrow in her chest. He has come here expecting not to leave. Walking to the noose, willingly if sadly, not even for the first time today! She went to speak, but words stuck in her throat for some reason, her mouth dry. Feeling an unknown urgency, Hera shot a quick look to her big sister, asking silently for help. Hestia for her part seemed surprised by her unspoken request, but shortly turned to Percy and said,<br/><br/>“Percy, son of Aspasia, Elena and Zelia, we mean you no harm. We only wish to get to know you,” as softly and kindly as only the goddess of the hearth could.</p><p> </p><p>The idea seemed to take a moment to register for him, and Hera could only watch as he started crying, the boy looking at the tears on his hand in confusion before giving a small smile as his eyes rolled back, collapsing toward the stone floor.</p><p> </p><p>Artemis was thankfully able to catch him before he impacted, allowing Hera to breath a sigh of relief. Yet she still felt a pang of anxiety for the distress they must have cause Percy, to be so stressed as to faint when it was relieved. Moving forward, the goddess picked up the boy, somehow smaller in her arms than before now he was unconscious. With a quick glance, Hestia led her to one side of the large room where she conjured a large, soft looking bed laden with comfortable quilts. Hera nodded her thanks to her sister before placing the boy in it, changing him into night clothes with a snap of her fingers and tucking him in comfortably, before returning to her seat beside the fire.</p><p> </p><p>A thoughtful silence fell upon the divine trio, before Artemis broke it.</p><p> </p><p>“Hera, I know we have been worshipped by the boy for the same amount of time, and I know that we three care for him,” which drew a short nod from her fellow goddesses. “But I can’t say I’m not surprised by how you treat him. You aren’t exactly known for liking demigods,” she finished dryly, getting a soft chuckle from Hestia.</p><p> </p><p>“I could say the same to you, my step-daughter,” Hera said, raising an eye brow. “It is almost unheard of for you to show any care for a male of any kind. Yet Percy is different,” she said, getting smiles of agreement from the other two.</p><p> </p><p>The silence fell again before Hera spoke. “I am not fond of demi-gods as a whole, no. Most are a product of adultery, and the others are almost exclusively born outside of marriage, both of which I cannot approve of. Whatever my personal feelings on the matter my domains at the very least enforce this,” which drew interested looks from the other two. Mentions of ones domains were scarce among the gods for very simple reasons. The gods embodied their domains, and as such, any insight into them was personal to the extreme, insight into the god themself. While not taboo per se, any direct enquires into another god’s domain was considered incredibly rude. No one god was certain how much another affected their domains or vice versa, and it seemed to vary greatly between deities.</p><p> </p><p>“Percy was a result of adultery of course. But his mother loved him beyond all else, that love marking him even now, and his adopted mothers’ love him equally so, something Percy returns in full,” Hera said, her voice rich and warm as she spoke of the maternal connections the boy had. She hadn’t felt any so strong in years, decades easily, and just being in their presence empowered her as the goddess of motherhood. Yet even as she delighted in this, it was bitter sweet. How long had it been since one of her children had cared for her in such a fashion, if ever?<br/>She knew she had not been a perfect mother, any but. Yet as time had grown on, and her children more distant, she found herself regretting her past actions more and more.</p><p> </p><p>“To be clear here, the boy is the son of Poseidon, yes?” Artemis asked, though it wasn’t really a question, getting immediate confirmation from the other two.</p><p> </p><p>The implications were obvious. Percy was to be the child of Prophecy, and as such should have been presented to the council immediately. Yet a quick glance at the other two told her that they would not be doing this, or at the least not yet.<br/><br/></p><p>Hera found herself staring at the corner where Percy now slept. They would let the boy live free for a while longer. Live to love his mothers, enjoy his life, kill monsters and worship the three of them.</p><p> </p><p>They had time.</p><p> </p><p>And Hera found she had never been more grateful.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hi all, been a hot minute right?<br/>Anyways, I'm reposting this because I somehow skipped a chapter earlier on...... yeah.<br/>And while it contained not a huge amount of plot relevant stuff, I liked that chapter, so I'm hoping you will too.<br/>But it means I have to do some shuffling.<br/>Anyways, I'm still in the middle of a massive writer's block, and going back over things I hope will help me break it.<br/>Hope all's well for you lot! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 7: Meeting True Worshippers Changes A God</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The divine interact with the feral child</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Chapter 7: Meeting True Worshippers Changes A God</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Percy woke in a strange cave, which by all rights should have panicked him far more than it did. One reason it failed to scare him was that he was lying on something uncommonly soft, like when he got to sleep on all his pelts piled up, no, even softer than that! And there were warm things on top of him. Woven by the looks of them, but of what he didn’t know. What he did know was that these too were incredibly soft and warm. He figured that if he woke in this strange but <em>sooooo </em>warm and comfy place, then whoever put him here probably didn’t mean him harm, right?</p><p>However warm and comfortable he had been, he was awake now, meaning that it was time to move, Percy having all the ability to stay still (when not praying or hunting) of an overly-caffeinated squirrel on acid. Digging his way out of the covers and emerging in a crouch, the boy took a moment to scent the air. The air was dry here, very uncommon for a cave, which was probably helped by the big fire in the middle of the room. That gave him pause for a moment as he could just barely smell any burning and practically no smoke, but he shrugged it off. He had other things to focus on. Like the smell of cooked meat somewhere in one of the corners of the room.</p><p>Another sniff confirmed this. High up too, meaning climbing was needed, which got a quick grin out of the boy.</p><p>Percy moved off the bed onto the stone floor beside it, and made his way along the wall. There, a strange hanging cloth type thing. Had a nice picture on it, but more importantly, was beside one of the high shelves lining the wall. Giving it a small tug to test it, Percy figured it was worth a shot and proceeded to haul himself hand over hand up the tapestry, his small stature and prodigious arm strength enabling him to climb it with ease, before pushing off the wall to land on the shelf. Which was stone he noted, and very smooth. Someone had carved this he assumed, though why he wasn’t certain. Whatever the case, the boy made his way along the shelf on his hands and balls of his feet.</p><p>There, at the end of the shelf. A plate of what smelled like some very tasty cooked meats. Pork, he thought idly as he reached it and put a piece in his mouth. Very salty pork, which made him smile. He liked salt, but it was very hard to get, and he had been told that flavouring his food with blood would get him sick sooner or later.</p><p>Letting his feet dangle off the shelf, he put some more meat in his mouth, enjoying its tough but crunchy texture. Looking at the plate, Percy noted some of the other things on it. Some mushrooms, some sort of large red berry thing, and something golden coloured and shaped sort of like a large leaf. Poking it gave off a crunchy noise, but it smelled nice, so he gave it another sniff before taking a small bite from the corner, enjoying the way it crunched like a big bug in his teeth.</p><p>He had finished the food was considering and had just begun to lick the plate when a voice called out, “I’m glad you enjoyed the food. If you bring the plate here you can have some more.”</p><p>Instantly Percy froze, his eyes locking onto the source of the voice. He found it beside the fire, three figures there, two small, one taller. One of the smaller ones was the speaker, drinking from a vessel with a smile on her face. Like a damn bursting the events of the previous day flooded his recollection. The Solstice, the hunt, the fight, meeting Lady Artemis, meeting Ladies Hera and Hestia. A whimper passed his lips and he felt himself grow tense, ready for flight, when one last memory brushed feather-light over his mind.</p><p>“<em>Percy, son of Aspasia, Elena and Zelia, we mean you no harm. We only wish to get to know you.”</em></p><p>The Goddesses, <em>his</em> Goddesses, wanted to get to know him.</p><p>He wasn’t really sure what they meant by that, but regardless, they weren’t going to hurt him. After all, they meant him no harm, right? More to the point, it wasn’t as though he could stop them if they did.</p><p>Taking a moment to gauge the drop, Percy shrugged and slid off the shelf, dropping some 12 feet and landing on the balls of his feet and rolling over one shoulder as his Mama had taught him, the plate held tight to his chest with one arm to keep it safe. As he brushed his knees, far more out of habit than a dirty floor, he failed to notice Artemis’s approving nod or the faintly shocked looks from the other two. They knew he was raised in the wild, knew he was a skilled fighter, and Hestia knew she should have known he would do as much when invited down to join them, but it was still something else to watch a small boy drop that far and land it like it was nothing.</p><p>Percy made his way to the fire where the three waited and accepted Hestia’s wordless invitation to sit beside her on the couch where she patted it. Shifting his weight on the strange, too soft bench, Percy caught another whiff of that tasty salty pork and, sure enough, his plate was full once more. He had just begun to dig in once more when a voice asked, “So, did you enjoy your sleep, Percy?” Causing the boy to swing his head to face the owner, a piece of bacon dangling from his mouth, getting a giggle out of Hestia while the other two just smiled.</p><p>“’esh, as ‘ud. ‘arm. ‘oft,” (Yes, was good. Warm. Soft.) Said Percy, teeth still clenched on his food, causing Hera to shake her head with a sigh.</p><p>“Finish your food, Percy, then speak, It seems that while your mothers did a good job overall, manners were not something they covered,” she said with a disapproving tone, getting a frown out out Hestia as the boy finished his mouthful.</p><p>Percy paused for a moment to swallow, before he asked “What are manners?” Receiving a slightly shocked look from Hera for his question while Artemis gave a short laugh.</p><p>They had known he was raised in the wilds by nature spirits, and having met them they seemed like lovely women, but they had clearly had different priorities when it came to raising the boy.</p><p>“Manners are little ways of being polite that show you respect someone,” Hestia answered with an amused smile. Percy’s sincerity was a great part of why the three of the were interested in him. That he was ignorant of things like social contracts only made sense she supposed.</p><p>Percy nodded slowly before asking, “Teach me manners please?” Which received beaming smiles from the three goddesses.</p><p>“Of course Percy. We would be happy to. Though saying please is an excellent example of using manners,” answered Hestia, which received nods in agreement from the other two.</p><p>Percy smiled at this, but looked confused, prompting Artemis to say, “Do you have a question, boy?”</p><p>Her use of ‘boy’ to address him drew frowns from the other two, causing the auburn goddess to sigh in frustration in response. Percy, largely ignoring the interplay in favour of his own metaphysical struggle, said “Thought ‘please’ how you asked for something. That’s what moms said.”</p><p>The three deities looked at each other in faint surprise. That’s one way to do it, Hestia mused. Ignore the question of manners by simply making the boy think that the polite way was the only way something was done. It was easier than not, with no real outside influences to teach him otherwise, and like many of their other teachings she suspected, imminently practical. Simply tell him that the polite way is the only things are done and he will learn it if only for lack of an alternative.</p><p>“It is indeed Percy. But consider, you could have asked without saying ‘please,’ correct? It would have been rude, and made us unhappy, but you could have. Your mothers taught you how to ask for something, and make the other person like you at the same time. That is one use for manners, and your mothers taught you well,” Hera finished with a smile, causing the boy to smile brightly at her.<br/><br/>He didn’t like to think that his mothers had taught him wrong. No, they had taught him right and he just didn’t know it! They were so smart!</p><p>Percy listened patiently while Hera and Hestia explained some basic manners to him, mentally noting that it all pretty much matched up with with what his mothers had taught him, even as he climbed various pieces of furniture as his need to move overtook him.</p><p>Well, patiently was subjective.</p><p>The watching goddesses could tell that he was still very much focused on what they were saying, but as Artemis put it, ‘the boy would find stillness difficult enough with his ADHD even without having lived in the wilds all his life,’ and so let him clamber around them as they spoke. Whenever he spoke he was careful to face them, this being one of the first points of manners they told him, but where he faced them from varied greatly. One moment he would be on the couch beside them, another he would be scampering across the high shelves again. Artemis amused herself by conjuring a set of monkey bars across the roof space, which soon had the boy swinging across the room with every sign of enjoyment and the kind of effortless grace that only came from this being part of one’s standard environment. Eventually Percy was found hanging upside down from the bars in front of the goddesses when Hera spoke up.</p><p>“Percy, you have prayed to us for a few years now, but I feel I must ask: why did you begin?”</p><p>The question was met with a pregnant stillness, with her fellow goddesses just as interested in the answer. Percy for his part seemed to ponder the question for a moment before dismounting the bars, flipping upright and landing feather-light on the floor bellow. He settled into a crouch and took a deep breath before answering, his face screwed up as he focused on getting the right words.</p><p>“I began because you important to me. I continued because you important.”</p><p>The three goddesses made a tableau of reactions. Artemis could feel the depth of his answer, and accepted that her importance to him and his life were enough. This being said, she also felt disappointed somehow. Yes, the wilds mattered to him, but part of her had hoped that it was her as an individual that was the reason for his worship, her face settling on acceptance, with a slight frown and sadness in her eyes.</p><p>Hestia was in stark contrast to her niece. While she was treated respectfully by her family, she had been overlooked for millennia, and to hear that someone had been worshipping her not only as an individual, but because her oft overlooked role was important? To have that acknowledged so bluntly brought tears of joy to her eyes, and a bright smile to her face.</p><p>Hera in turn was caught in a wave of grief. The boy had seen fit to worship her for her role in his life, and then only continued for her role as Queen of the Gods. For divine credit. She felt a familiar bitterness well up inside her at the thought.</p><p>Typical demi-gods, always after a favour, a leg up.</p><p>Her face matched these thoughts, tears in her eyes as her face started to morph into a mask of bitter rage.</p><p>However, all lines of thought were cut off as Percy stood up abruptly, shaking his head furiously and began pacing around the hearth with a deep frown on his face with mutters of,<br/>“No, wrong. Not full right, not enough,” and any reactions the goddesses had were halted as they realised that what he had said wasn’t the full story.</p><p>Eventually, Percy stopped pacing and walked in front of Artemis, standing as tall as his young frame allowed and holding out a hand in front of him in invitation, a determined expression on his face and an inner fire burning in his green eyes. Hera and Hestia watched in bemusement as Artemis took the offered hand and allowed Percy to pull her into standing.</p><p>Still holding her hand, Percy spoke once more.</p><p>“You matter,” he said indicating the area around him, even waving a hand to mime the passage of the moon. Then he took the hand in both hands and looked her dead in the eyes before saying,<br/>“<em>You</em> matter,” his eyes burning into hers to get the message across, before doing something that shocked the goddesses: he hugged her.</p><p>Artemis felt a weight lift from her shoulders as a small laugh escaped her, whatever doubts she had had about any devotion he had to her personally erased. The hug was held for maybe a minute before Percy pulled back, and met her eyes with a soft smile on his face, one which she echoed, before giving him a nod as she sat down once more.</p><p>Next Percy took Hestia’s hand, and she followed eagerly, curious as to what clarification he would offer her. Percy for his part gave her a slightly confused look before saying,<br/><br/>“You always important. You forever important. You always important to me.”</p><p>Hestia understood him immediately. Don’t doubt yourself, he was saying. You are and have always been important, to everyone and to me. Looking at the boy the confused look turned into a cheeky grin, causing the goddess to give a bright giggle before she pulled him into a hug, clearly surprising him but not unwelcomely. After a minute or two, she too returned to her seat before the boy went to stand in front of Hera and led her to stand in turn.</p><p>Hera waited anxiously for him to speak, part of her still frozen in a grief stricken rage that he had just been using her like those before him. Yet the way he had spoken to her fellow goddesses gave her a brief glimmer of hope, that she had taken it wrong, had misunderstood. The seconds before he spoke seemed to stretched forever before at last Percy broke the silence</p><p>“You are important. Not you with Zeus. Not only what do. You. <em>You.”<br/><br/></em>If the words themselves weren’t shocking enough, the way he spoke would have convinced her. He spoke with such fire, such determination for her to understand, that Hera felt her grief melt like snow in the sun. She was valued. Not for her connections or what she could do or as Zeus's wife.</p><p>Her.</p><p>This time, rather than surprise the goddess with a hug, Percy released her hand and stepped back and held his arms wide with hopeful eyes. Hera let out a sobbing laugh at the gesture. She had had too much simply taken from her in her life. Taken for granted, taken without her choice. Even her marriage she had been forced into by Zeus taking from her without consent. This simple offering of choice was small, but the fact that he recognized her need for choice meant more than she could say, even as she knelt and wrapped the boy tightly in a hug, sobbing as the boy held her.</p><p>Artemis watched her step-mother sob into the boy’s back, a feeling of deep sadness in her chest. She had missed it, how hurt she was. How the way the gods treating Hera as a side piece to her adulterous husband had scarred her. And this boy, just past his first decade, had seen this pain masked for millennia, had known it without ever seeing the mask. It was a failure on her part as a goddess to have missed it, and never had Artemis hated her own father more than right now. To have chipped away at the will of a powerful woman for countless years until finally a small boy with a great heart and eyes that simply ignored masks had torn the pain into the open for her to see.</p><p>Hestia watched the pair, sadness in her eyes and a sigh on her lips. She had felt the hope of her sister, once powerful and burning bright, be slowly smothered under the ego of the gods. The ages had rendered it into little more than banked embers after all these years, but this felt like a gentle breeze giving life to flames, and she couldn’t help but smile even as she watched her sister cry. This had been what Hera needed. Maybe what they all needed, Hestia reflected, thinking on how much Percy’s simple words had meant to her.</p><p>After the tears had finally dried, the goddesses readied the boy to leave, each giving him a hug before Artemis took his hand and flashed him back to his shrines, where he was greeted happily by the Hunt and tearfully by his mothers. Not that they didn’t trust the goddesses he prayed to of course, but the affairs of gods are murky at best. They could only hope he had not caught the eye of someone intent to cause more trouble in his brief stay.</p><p>While Percy played a rather energetic (read: involving many sharp edges) game of tag with a few members of the Hunt, Artemis approached his mothers who were watching the scene with every sign of amusement. Seeing her approach, the trio rose from their seats to greet her.</p><p>“Lady Artemis! Thank you for returning our boy safely to us,” Aspasia said with a warm smile.</p><p>“It was my pleasure ladies,” Artemis replied with a small smile, acknowledging the potential risk Percy had been in while on Olympus. Seeing their shoulders relax, the goddess couldn’t help but feel guilty. They had brought Percy to the home of the gods, even while knowing the risk of him being discovered. Sure, they were confident in their ability to conceal or protect him as necessary between the three of them, but all of that did little for his mothers forced to wait behind. Even as this occurred to her, Artemis couldn’t help but marvel at the changes Percy had wrought in the three goddesses. Before, she may have simply failed to see their perspective, how helpless they would have felt as an Olympian stole their son away, with only their own assurances of his safety. Even if she had seen it, their was every possibility of her ignoring it, the goddesses admitted privately with another twinge of guilt. The gods liked to think of themselves above all others, and they were, if only in that they had the power to effect their lives as they chose, only hindered by the efforts of other divines. Yet over the course of a few patient years a small boy had burrowed themselves deep into their hearts, <em>her</em> heart, reminding them that though they had power over the world, they were part of it, and that gods are people too. That last thought gave rise to the urge to laugh bitterly. How no few members of the council would rage at it. Gods were people too, and part of the world? That would mean taking responsibility for their actions or worse still, their own children!</p><p>Shaking her head free of her own mental rant, Artemis addressed the trio. After giving an explanation as to what had happened last night before bringing up something the three goddesses had discussed.</p><p>“Your son is quite the unusual boy,” Artemis began, getting wry smiles from his three mothers. “He is a powerful fighter, and will only grow more so with time. However, regardless of how good you three have done at razing him, my fellow goddesses and I feel that he would benefit from spending some time with others of his kind; other demigods.”</p><p>Artemis fought a sigh as the trio of spirits grew concerned, panic and worry etched on their features. Of course they would be reluctant. An idiot could see they worried about losing him, and Artemis was far from stupid.</p><p>“There is a camp, where other demi-gods are sent: Camp Half-blood. They are safe there, to train, to learn to survive and learn of their heritage and all it entails,” The silver eyed goddess began again, noting their worry decrease when Percy being safe was mentioned.<br/>“Now the boy is unusual in that he has no need of the training they would provide. What would be good for him however would be spending time with his fellow demigods and learning to interact with them. Sooner or later he would be forced to do so, if he hasn’t already, and gaining this experience would prove invaluable to him.”<br/><br/>Artemis could see their reluctance waning so she went for the kill. “Think of it as a training trip, just for the season to begin with. At the end of it, you can ask him if he wants to return at some point. In between, he can still contact you with Iris Messages, so you won’t be out of touch.”</p><p>Almost there she thought, as the three looked at each other thoughtfully. After a minute of silent conversation, Elena spoke.</p><p>“We aren’t against the idea, and it would be good for Percy. We do have one final concern....”</p><p>When Artemis gestured to go on, she continued.<br/>“We are aware of Percy’s heritage. More specifically, his father. We also know that being his son would not be taken well.”</p><p>“You want to conceal the boy’s heritage,” The goddess stated. It was not unreasonable, and their concerns were valid: Percy being acknowledged would be a spark to a powder keg, and that was without his interactions to his goddesses. Which line of thought shocked the goddess. She could tell even now that she and her fellow goddesses thought of Percy as <em>theirs</em> even if he didn’t think of them as his. The thought had an uncanny weight to it, one which she would have to discuss with the others. What passed silently underlying these thoughts was the fact that Artemis now considered herself, Hestia and Hera as a trio, a group; a realization that would shock her further when made apparent in time.</p><p>For now, she had to ease the mothers’ concerns.<br/>“While I cannot speak for the others, I have no intention of revealing the boy’s parentage. It would cause trouble that none of us need, least of all Percy,” which drew nods from the three.</p><p>“I will speak with them about what we may do to conceal it without drawing attention to it,” which received relieved smiles.</p><p>Finally getting agreement from the mothers, Artemis called for Percy, who dropped with silently from the canopy above, smiling as he ran and hugged his mothers, before turning a beaming grin on the goddess and bowing to her, which had the four women chuckling.</p><p>“Percy, how would you like to go on a trip to meet other demigods?” Asked Aspasia.<br/><br/>Percy looked thoughtful for a moment before asking, “Not to stay away?”<br/>The worry in his tone had the three spirits hugging instantly before they reassured him, “Of course not darling. Just to meet others like you and make some more friends. Does that sound good?”<br/><br/>After being reassured that it was just a training trip, more or less, the boy nodded happily with a bright smile on his face, prompting his mothers to coo even as they cuddled him closer.</p><p>Artemis wasn’t entirely sure they could hear her as she told them of the plan to escort him most of the way with the Hunt, before leaving him to travel the final few miles to the camp grounds himself.</p><p>As the mothers fussed over the boy before sending the smiling lad off to check the traps for lunch, Artemis could only send out a silent prayer to Chaos that they were not making a terrible mistake.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>IIIII LIIIIVVVEEE!!!!</p><p>Been a hot minute right?<br/>Yeah, still in the grip of this writer's block, but as you can see, with a lot of effort I can (eventually) produce content.<br/>Yay me!</p><p>Hope you like!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 8: Good Children Go to Camp</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Percy arrives at Camp.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Chapter 8: Good Children Go to Camp</b>
</p>
<p>Percy would be the first to admit that he wasn’t one for long term plans. Long term projects like his shrine were OK as it was more of a case of a series of smaller actions taken one after another as they needed doing. Think of the basic shape, then slowly pane the stone into that shape before further refining it, that sort of thing. So naturally, when he was left in a forest and told to go to the camp several miles in that direction, he nodded and went happily on his way. That it was one of his goddesses doing the telling only reinforced this.</p>
<p>Step one being complete, Percy was now confronted with Step two:</p>
<p>Do something about all the sharp metal objects pointed at him.</p>
<p>The ones holding said objects with varying degrees of skill appeared to be human (well, mostly human anyway. Had a certain tang to the scent indicating divine heritage), so there was a higher chance of talking with them actually doing something, so he decided to try that.</p>
<p>“Hi!” He chirped happily.</p>
<p>This seemed to confuse the weapon holders. They were the ones with the weapons, this kid was the one with them pointed at him. Several of the more experienced guards had seen a variety of reactions to this over the years, but they could all safely say that a cheerful smile wasn’t among them.</p>
<p>One of the bigger ones there, a girl with wild red hair on an impressively muscled frame scowled at him before saying, “What’s your name, and why are you here?”</p>
<p>Percy would have nodded at this but for the blades at his throat. Good questions.</p>
<p>“Percy. Was told come here.”</p>
<p>This seemed to confuse the guards.</p>
<p>After a few moments of looking at each other and having an extremely loud, silent conversation (Percy almost winced at the volume of the body language), the wild boy decided that the weapons were interesting, so took one of the guards swords.</p>
<p>He was giving it a few practice swings when the guards finally decided what to do with him.</p>
<p>“You! Hand over all your weapons and come with us! And Devon, isn’t that your sword?”</p>
<p>“What? Hey! Give that back!” Apparently-Devon yelled angrily.</p>
<p>Percy scowled at this. He took the sword, it was his now. If he didn’t want it taken, he would have at least tried to stop him.</p>
<p>One of the other guards, clearly angry at Percy’s sword repossession, went to stab him in the leg with his spear. Percy, having decided that today was not a day he favoured being stabbed, side-stepped the thrust and used his new sword to disarm the guard in question by severing their thumb with a quick flick of the blade, and wrenching the haft from their weakened grip.</p>
<p>The other guards stared in shock as their friend screamed out in pain clutching at his injured hand with his t-shirt trying to staunch the flow of blood. After another second of shocked silence, the other guards present screamed in fury before turning to attack the wild boy with a quizzical smile on his face. He was going to stab him, why get mad that he got stabbed back?</p>
<p>Regardless, Percy wasn’t about to take someone screaming angrily as a reason to get stabbed, so he set about disarming and knocking out his attackers. He tried to avoid maiming or killing them as they were clearly only learning, though why you would set learners to guard your home, he had no idea. The tall, red-haired girl, put up a bit more fight than the others, making it more difficult to not kill her. He was working himself up to try talking again to try and avoid this when another group of armed and armoured teens closed on their position.</p>
<p>“Hold, Clarice!” A strangely familiar girl’s voice called out.</p>
<p>The shout caused a lull in the battle, leaving Percy standing only a few feet from the enraged now named Clarice, her fellow guards laying in piles around her as she very nearly nearly glowed with rage, her discipline warring with her desire to bury various blades in the wild boys body.</p>
<p>Percy took another step backwards, sword pointed towards the ground before he turned to the owner of the voice. He grinned brightly as he recognised the girl’s steely grey eyes.</p>
<p>“Annabeth!” he chirped.</p>
<p>This caused the red-haired giant to pause for a second. “Hey Know-it-all, you know this punk?” she growled out.</p>
<p>Annabeth turned to the cheerful boy, who somehow looked innocent in spite of the blood on the blade he was holding. Her grey eyes stared at the new-comer before the widened in recognition.</p>
<p>“Percy?” she blurted out, causing him to nod and wave his empty hand in greeting.</p>
<p>“So you know him?” Clarice growled pointedly, causing Annabeth to sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose, the universal sign of someone recognising an impending headache.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I know him,” she sighed. “He saved our group as we were coming to camp for the first time. Took care of a pack of hellhounds about to overrun us faster than you would believe. Never really said anything aside from his name. Got the impression that he lived in the woods, though he seemed to know about the divine world. Ran for it when Thalia showed him Aegis...” she trailed off, a slight hitch in her voice as she spoke of the punk teenager.</p>
<p>Something must have happened to her, Percy thought with a frown.</p>
<p>“But regardless, I don’t know what he’s doing he- Ahhh!” Annabeth finished, shouting as she noticed the raven haired boy suddenly standing in front of her, with a sad look on his face, as he pulled the shocked girl into a hug.</p>
<p>Annabeth stood numbly as Percy held her for a few moments, before he pulled back and he smiled at her softly and with – was that sympathy? Was he trying to comfort her?</p>
<p>“She lived. You live now. For her,” he said softly, leaving her standing there numbly as he he pulled away and walked passed him.</p>
<p>The steely eyed girl for her part stared blankly into the distance as her a wave of grief swept over her, her mind in chaos even as a little piece of it calmly analysed what she was going through.</p>
<p>She had never really taken the time to grieve for Thalia. There was always something else to do, and when there wasn’t, she <em>made</em> something.</p>
<p>Another battle plan, training schedule, inventorying the armoury.</p>
<p>Volunteering for patrol, that little piece of her thought ruefully.</p>
<p>And somewhere along the line, she had stopped living. Existing sure. Surviving, definitely.</p>
<p>Living? No. She hadn’t done that for a while.</p>
<p>She could almost hear Thalia now, her electric blue eyes looking down on her with what Annabeth had mentally called her ‘disappointed Mom’ look, something that even the calm piece of her mind skipped over quickly.</p>
<p>(The fact that in her deepest heart and mind she thought of the teenage daughter of Zeus as more of her mother than her <em>actual divine mother</em> wasn’t something she could deal with right now.)</p>
<p>“Annie,” she would say in that familiar cross tone that she longed to hear one more time.<br/>“What are you doing? What’s even the point of living if you don’t enjoy it? What was the point of running away if you just put yourself in a different prison. I sure as Hades didn’t sacrifice my life so wouldn’t even try and live,” she would finish, those eyes dancing with mirth, even as she scowled.</p>
<p>Of course Thalia would make a joke out of making a martyr of herself, Annabeth thought as a sob ripped though her frame.</p>
<p>And somehow, this wild boy had torn through the walls in her own mind that she hid behind like they weren’t there to begin with. He had exposed her grief to herself, and then handed her the means to deal with it in a way that was not only constructive, but that Thalia would have approved of.<br/><br/>Stop existing. Start living.</p>
<p>Even as the thought occurred to her, Annabeth felt a new sense of conviction light a fire in her veins, returning her back to reality with a jolt.<br/>She was stiff, legs folded underneath her where she had collapsed on the ground. She felt tired, yet somehow lighter than she could remember being in... a long time.<br/>(Since Thalia died for them. For <em>her</em>, that little corner whispered, just quietly enough for her to try and ignore.)</p>
<p>She took a shuddering breath before lifting herself up off the ground, legs just a touch unsteady as feeling returned to them.</p>
<p>She needed to find Percy. To talk to him. Thank him, if nothing else.</p>
<p>Percy.<br/><br/>Where was he?<br/>Awareness of the world rolled in. By the position of the Sun, she had been sitting there on the camp border for <em>hours, </em>and Percy had left. Into camp, she thought, her mind somehow registering that he had moved passed her after hugging her.</p>
<p>Best to find Chiron then, she thought before setting off a jog, figuring that even if the boy wasn’t with her mentor, he would know where he was.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Percy left the Annabeth in the pile she had formed on the grass and wandered into the camp, looking around in curiosity as he went. The buildings around him were interesting, set in a wide, unclosed circle with no two buildings alike. They were really neat!<br/>Here one of them had big trunks coming from its roof, belching forth a smog, smelling richly of coal smoke and steel and sweat. Another was a shiny gold, like someone had decided that staring at the sun was the perfect color for a building and wanted to share this revelation with the world.</p>
<p>Sure it was pretty enough, he thought, but he could imagine himself actually living in such a building.</p>
<p>Percy was starting to get excited now. There was so much to see! And even more to smell!<br/>Here what looked like a library, but it wouldn’t let him in. Another building was painted a bright red with, yup a sniff confirmed it, actual blood in the paint.</p>
<p>But even all of that was nothing compared to there being a building for Artemis and Hera!<br/>The one of Artemis was beside the too bright gold building and looked like a log cabin, but really nicely made and a sense of metal to it’s outside. It was decorated with statues of animals and had a nice statue of Artemis just inside the door, like a warning. What really made Percy happy was that somehow it smelt almost exactly like a night hunt. The scent of the woods, a cold wind in his hair and moonlight on his face. With a bright grin on his face he bowed to the statue, before stepping back and looking at it critically.</p>
<p>The statue was well made to be sure, but something about it seemed off to him. It looked like the goddess to be sure, and felt like her presence, so had probably been blessed. But it seemed..... stiff.</p>
<p>Like it only showed a fraction of the whole.</p>
<p>Percy had once come across a family standing stiffly in a park while a man pointed a box with a tube attached to it at them which made clicking noises and flashed bright lights at them. He remembered how the family had been awkward as the man with the box told them what to do, and when he told them they were finished, all of them breathed a sigh of relief.</p>
<p>This statue of Artemis reminded him almost exactly of that. Sure it showed her picture well enough, but it was like she didn’t want to be there and someone was making her stay still for the statue being carved.</p>
<p>Percy walked away, shaking his head about making the goddess of the Hunt stand on display, not even showing her hunting. He mentally swore to pray to ask if he could replace the statue, or at least make a shrine here, missing how the statue smiled at his departing back.</p>
<p>The next on his list was the building for Hera. It was beside the one for her cheating husband, which Percy flashed a scowl at, and some sort of building which smelt of salt water.<br/>It probably belonged to Poseidon, his dad, but honestly it wasn’t like that mattered. He hadn’t ever talked to him, why bother each other now?<br/>Hera’s building was a graceful white stone structure, with carvings of flowers and some odd looking fruit. Also peacocks, which Percy had read were a sacred animal for Hera, so he had decided that he wouldn’t eat them if he could avoid it. Even if, to his hunter’s mind, they looked delicious.</p>
<p>Percy stepped inside the building, causing the people that had started following him around to gasp, which made him think maybe it wasn’t something people usually did. But Percy had met Hera, and she was really nice, and had needed a hug, so going to see her was fine right?</p>
<p>Probably?<br/>Hmm.</p>
<p>“Lady Hera, I know I’m asking late, but may I enter your building?” Percy asked, his voice taking on the lyrical, singing tone it took while praying.<br/><br/>The air in the building noticeably freshened in response to his question, brightening and wrapping him in a sense of warmth and welcome.</p>
<p>No longer worried about offending one of his patrons, Percy wandered the building, though it must be said that there wasn’t all that much to see.</p>
<p>Not that it wasn’t pretty, but much like the carvings on the outside, the carvings and shiny displays on the walls had a stale feeling to them. Percy found himself standing in front of the large statue of Hera that dominated the room, her stern likeness surveying her domain.</p>
<p>This statue too gave off the stiff awkward feeling that Artemis’ statue had, and after a few minutes of thinking, Percy thought he might have figured out what was wrong with them.</p>
<p>They were... pretending.</p>
<p>Acting.</p>
<p>It was important they were there (though why that was, Percy didn’t pretend to know), but they didn’t want to be there and it showed.</p>
<p>And the carvings. It was like the one that carved them knew that they had to be something that Hera liked, but didn’t <em>care</em> that she liked them.</p>
<p>(If Percy had more exposure to other children, he might have heard tales of how a distant parent might want to earn their child’s affection by buying them gifts of things that the child was reported to like, like unicorn toys for a little girl that likes unicorns. Except the girl had grown in that time, and found she liked animals in general, and liked how they were warm and cuddly and alive. But the parent, in a vain attempt to gain their favour, didn’t know this, indeed, didn’t stop to think <em>why </em>they might like unicorns, all of this culminating in a tense awkward silence as the parent gifted them their Nth unwanted unicorn plushy.)</p>
<p>Percy knew it was the caring that mattered, not the shape of the thing. Even more so if the one to make it was another god, as effort wasn’t really part of the equation at that point.</p>
<p>Percy wouldn’t know that his thoughts on the matter would cause Hera to cry as she watched him from her private sitting room, as she wondered why it was that none of her children, let alone her husband, ever thought these things through.</p>
<p>Percy gave a deep bow to the statue, before smiling sadly and turning to leave, his mind already abuzz with plans for new shrines.</p>
<p>Percy’s planning was interrupted by a something brushing on the edge of his consciousness. A sensation of many parts, one of the smell of woodsmoke, another the warmth of the fire and all of this enveloped in the comfort of home, a hug and a hot dinner after a long hunt.</p>
<p>Percy perked up immediately, instinctively recognising the combination, and found that his feet had led him in front of a bright hearth, burning low and strong. It was the fire’s tender that caught his attention however, the little girl meeting his gaze with a smile as warm as the flames.</p>
<p>“Hestia!” Percy chirped, throwing himself into hugging the little goddess, who met his tackle with a bright laugh.</p>
<p>After pulling away from the hug, Percy looked up from where he sat on the ground and tilted his head quizzically before asking, “Why here?”</p>
<p>The goddess fought to stop herself cooing at the adorable sight before she answered.</p>
<p>“I tend the hearth of the camp so it stays strong and welcomes all who stay here.”</p>
<p>Percy nodded solemnly. “Important.”</p>
<p>Hestia could only smile at this. “Indeed.”</p>
<p>Percy sat beside the goddess as she tended the flames for a time before his energy wouldn’t let him stay still no longer, where upon he flopped down onto her lap, causing her to giggle at his antics.</p>
<p>After a moment or two, the wild boy squirmed and got up again</p>
<p>To give his energy a small outlet, Percy pulled out his knives and juggling them for a few minutes,</p>
<p>before he noticed something that immediately seized his attention.</p>
<p>“Hestia,” he said, getting the goddess’ attention. “Where cabin?”</p>
<p>A flicker of sadness passed her face before the kind smile returned.<br/>“I don’t have one Percy. I am not an Olympian. Nor do I have any children to have it for,” she answered patiently.</p>
<p>Frowning now, Percy asked, “But where shrine?” Then the frown turned to a furious scowl.</p>
<p>“Where shrine?!” he demanded, almost shouting with sorrow and righteous anger.</p>
<p>“Where shrine?!” He yelled, pointing now at the cabins for Artemis and Hera, before waving his hands at the goddess in front of him, tears streaming down his face.</p>
<p>Hestia watched the boy grow more upset and her heart broke to see his tears, shed on behalf of her and her fellow goddesses. She reached for the boy and wrapped him in her arms as he cried himself out.</p>
<p>As he cried, the emotions of the day caught up with him, leaving the boy tired, half-asleep in her arms. Before he finally slipped into the realm of Hypnos, she heard the wild boy mutter, ‘It’s not right.’</p>
<p>As Hestia gently rocked the sleeping boy by the fire-side, she couldn’t help but agree.</p>
<p>Yet she knew Percy would never settle for this, and for all that she was the goddess, and he the devotee, she felt blessed.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey all, have a thing!<br/>Finally finished this chapter. Took me long enough, I am aware.<br/>Still, hope you enjoyed it!<br/>And for all of those along for the ride, thank you for the support! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a side project of mine I've been putting way too much time into to not post, so here it is!<br/>Edit: Pretty much confirmed that Percy will not be pairing with anyone, not a goddess at any rate. This might change, but it will be a long time in doing so. For now, read as if no pairings, k?</p><p>In the meantime, I'd like to shout out Jecka76 on FF.net for the work 'A Different Legend' which inspired this!<br/>It's a damn good read and you should absolutely give it a go!</p><p>Anyways, Kudos and Comments are forever welcome!<br/>Take care out there (especially you poor souls in 'currently on Fire' countries like the USA), and all the best! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>